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TREATISE 



REGENERATION. 



BY 

E. c/ WINES, D.D. 






PHILADELPHIA: 

PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION, 

No, 821 Chestnut Street. 



ms. 



Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by 

THE TRUSTEES OF THE 

PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District 
of Pennsylvania. 

STEREOTYPED BY WILLIAM W. HARDING, PHILADELPHIA. 



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Lc Control 



Number 




tmp96 



027661 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTEK I. 

PAGE 

Preliminary. Definition of regeneration — Greatness of the 
change effected in regeneration — Proper signification of 
the term — Instances of its use by profane writers — Preva- 
lent errors concerning regeneration — Scriptural views of 
regeneration.. 7 

CHAPTEE II. 

Nature of Regeneration. Things implied in regeneration. 
1. Conviction of sin — How this conviction is wrought in the 
soul — Modes of the Spirit's operation in regeneration various 
—Conviction not to be viewed as a warrant or condition of 
welcome in coming to Christ — Conviction, nevertheless, in 
its own nature, an indispensable prerequisite. 2. Illumination 
of the understanding — Spiritual enlightenment the first ef- 
fect of the Spirit's regenerating power — All men by nature 
in a state of spiritual darkness — This doctrine offensive to 
the pride of the unrenewed heart — Scriptural proofs of the 
Spirit's illuminating work — Nature and scope of this illumi- 
nation — Office of the Spirit to remove obstructions, not to re- 
veal new truth. 3. Renewal of the will — The proper func- 
tion of the will — Is the power of contrary choice necessary to 
the freedom of the will ? — The difficulty theoretical rather 
than practical — The moral choices of the will always in har- 
mony with the moral state of the chooser — Consequently, the 
will of the natural man needs a renovation — Nature of the 
Spirit's work in the renewal of the will — The will ever free — 
The renewed soul conscious of its freedom — The Spirit's 
agency in renewing the will a mystery. 4. A change of heart 

3 



4 CONTENTS. 

PAGB 

— The affections in the regenerate are wholly changed as to 
their direction and objects. 5. Sanctification of the body — 
The divine temper inwrought in the soul by regeneration 
communicates itself to the members of the body — An interest- 
ing passage from President Edwards' Diary bearing on this 
point — The sanctification of the body much insisted on by 
the sacred writers 11 

CHAPTEE III. 

Instantaneousness op Regeneration. Reason affirms that 
regeneration must be instantaneous — Proofs of the doctrine 
from Scripture. First Proof: Instances of regeneration in 
Scripture not otherwise easily explicable. Second Proof: 
The fact that regeneration is termed a calling. Third Proof: 
The similitudes employed to set forth regeneration — (a) It is 
compared to creation — (6) It is compared to a resurrection. 
Fourth Proof: Classification of men in Scripture — Not need- 
ful to a comfortable assurance of our regeneration that we 
should be able to specify the time and circumstances of it — 
"There are diversities of operation" — Comfort administered 
to timid and doubting Christians 33 

CHAPTER IV. 

Necessity of Regeneration. The change effected in regen- 
eration essential to salvation. First Proof: Drawn from the 
actual condition of human nature — An example illustrating 
natural death — Analogous example illustrating spiritual 
death — Confirmatory incident in the Life of Wilberforce. 
Second Proof: Regeneration essential to the enjoyment of 
heaven. Third Proof: The necessity results from the holiness 
of God. Fourth Proof: It results from the mission and work 
of Christ. Fifth Proof: It is plainly taught in Scripture — 
The new birth a strange doctrine to philosophers and world- 
lings — Solemn appeal to the reader 46 

CHAPTER V. 

The Author of Regeneration. God the Holy Ghost the sole 
author of regeneration — Scripture proofs of this doctrine — 
Divine power necessary in regeneration. 1. Because the 



CONTENTS. O 

PAGE 

change wrought therein is a change from death to life. 2. 
Because the work is a creation. 3. Because the thing to be 
changed is the dark, selfish, proud heart of man. 4. Because 
of the intrinsic difficulty of the work. 5. Because the Gospel, 
if mighty in itself, would, when dispensed under the same or 
similar circumstances, always be equally successful ; whereas 
the fact is far otherwise. 6. The Bible clearly and copiously 
attests this necessity — Our Lord's declaration to Nicodemus. 
Passages which unequivocally ascribe regeneration to divine 
power — God claims regeneration as his work — Our Saviour's 
testimony — Paul's testimony — Jeremiah's testimony — Testi- 
mony of divers other Scriptures — Ezekiel's testimony in the 
vision of dry bones — The soul, nevertheless, not a mere 
lump of clay, lying inert and passive under the divine hand 
— Is the soul active or passive in regeneration ? — Both ; but 
in different senses — The same things often represented in 
Scripture as from God and from us — Regeneration and con- 
version distinguished — The mode of the Spirit's operation. 
1. Mysterious. 2. Real. 3. Various — Practical lessons 58 

CHAPTEE VI. 

The Instrument op Regeneration. The divine word the in- 
strument of regeneration — This doctrine abundantly taught 
in Scripture — The history of God's grace confirms the doc- 
trine — Two great departments of the word : the law and the 
gospel — Office of the law — Office of the gospel — A caution : 
The word only the instrumental, not the efficient cause of 
regeneration — Nevertheless, the truth is the divinely ap- 
pointed means — God uses this agency with perfect sincerity 
— The sinner's duty and interest is to respond to the be- 
nevolent concern and importunity of God — Forms under 
which the means are to be used by the sinner — Benefit of 
using means — The use of means the ordinary antecedent of 
regeneration — The sinner must not rest in the use of 
means 83 

CHAPTEK VII. 

Fruits and Evidences op Regeneration. Regeneration brings 
forth fruits, which evince its reality — Paul's description of 
1* 



6 CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

regeneration as to its fruits — These fruits are: 1. New 
apprehensions of God and new emotions towards hi.ui. 2. 
new views of Christ. 3. A new relish of ordinances. 4. New 
views of sin. 5. New thoughts and exercises in respect to 
holiness. 6. New views of truth. 7. New judgments of 
self. 8. New feelings towards Christians. 9. New emotions 
towards sinners. 10. A new estimate of the world. 11. A new 
estimate of time. 12. New impressions and judgments of 
eternity. 13. A new life 97 

CHAPTEK VIII. 

Conclusion. Recapitulation of the points embraced in regen- 
eration — The essence of spiritual life inexplicable — Spiritual 
life a reality nevertheless — Two states, the carnal and the 
spiritual, to one or other of which every child of Adam be- 
longs — The reader solemnly warned, invited, reasoned with, 
and urged to seek the regenerating and saving grace of 
God in Christ 109 

Alphabetical Index 117 



A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 



CHAPTER I. 

PRELIMINARY. 

Regeneration is a radical and permanent change 
in the soul ; effected instantaneously ; indispensably 
necessary to every human being; wrought efficiently 
by the almighty power of God the Holy Spirit, but 
instrumentally by the incorruptible seed of the 
word of God ; and producing a rich variety of 
spiritual fruits, which are so many tokens and 
evidences that the change, in any given case, has 
been experienced. The doctrine of the new birth 
is fundamental in the Christian system. It is pro- 
posed, in the following pages, to open and confirm 
this doctrine, as set forth in the several particulars 
embraced in the foregoing proposition. 

A glorious spiritual change sometimes takes place in 
the soul of man. 
This change is called in the Bible a regenera- 
tion ; a new birth ; a new creation ; a new heart ; 
a resurrection ; the conversion of a heart of stone 

7 



8 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

into a heart of flesh ; a quickening or revivifying of 
souls dead in trespasses and sins ; a clothing of 
dry bones with flesh and infusion of life into the 
dead forms thus produced. These are strong terms. 
They have a mighty meaning. They indicate the 
completeness and thoroughness of the change ex- 
pressed by them. It is a change so complete, so 
thorough, that men only begin to love God on pass- 
ing through it, having before been wholly alienated 
from him. The state before the change is one of 
sin and spiritual death ; the state after the change 
is one of holiness and spiritual life. The former is 
the agitation of the troubled ocean, casting up mire 
and dirt ; the latter is calmness, peace, and joy. 

The Greek word, rendered by our translators 
regeneration, denotes an alteration of state, by 
which a person is brought into a wholly new and 
reformed condition. The change indicated by the 
term is, in every case, a change for the better. 
Cicero calls his restoration from exile a regenera- 
tion. Josephus gives the same name to the restora- 
tion of the Jewish land after the captivity. In Roman 
law, the manumission of a slave was termed his re- 
generation. When the Israelites spoke of the re- 
nunciation of a false religion and the adoption of 
the true in its place, they called the change thus 
effected a new birth. A Gentile, converted from 
paganism to Judaism, was regarded by the Jews as 
one new born, a child just beginning to live. In 
general, the word denotes an introduction into a 



PRELIMINARY. 9 

new, improved, and more happy state. Theologi- 
cally, it signifies a complete renovation of heart and 
life, a moral revolution in the man, in his judgments, 
emotions, principles, aims, and conduct ; insomuch 
that his opposite states — the old and the new — are 
characterized by words, which express no other 
states in the human soul. 

Very erroneous notions are often entertained on 
this subject. By some, the new birth is supposed 
to consist in a mere persuasion of the truth, the 
belief of an orthodox creed. Others place it in 
baptism, ascribing a mysterious efficacy to a mere 
outward ceremony ; a ceremony, it is true, of Divine 
institution, and having a high significance and 
value ; but, at the same time, deriving its import- 
ance from the fact that it is a sign, seal, and in- 
strument of grace, not grace itself, nor the neces- 
sary or invariable channel of its communication. 
Others, again, regard it as consisting in an outward 
reformation of the life, the mere practice of the 
duties of relative morality, from whatever motive 
these duties may spring, by whatever rule they may 
be controlled, and to whatever end they may be 
directed. Other theories, still, represent as regen- 
eration a visible profession of religion, or some im- 
provement resulting from the use of reason, or such 
a mere intellectual perception of moral truth, as 
renders virtue in some degree attractive, and vice 
proportionably repulsive, to the natural understand- 
ing. These are grave errors. Their only tendency 



10 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

is to benumb the spiritual faculties, to cloud the 
spiritual perceptions, and to lull the soul into a 
deadly spiritual slumber. 

Regeneration, according to the scriptural repre- 
sentation of it, is a very different thing from all this. 
Neither orthodoxy, nor baptism, nor morality, nor 
outward reformation, nor the improvement of rea- 
son, nor a visible profession, nor any degree of 
light to which the natural understanding may attain, 
answers to the conception of the new birth, as it lay 
in the minds of prophets and apostles. The change 
indicated by this term is real, not nominal ; radical, 
not superficial ; internal and spiritual, rather than 
outward and carnal ; in a word, it is a change of 
the subject, and not of the name only. To be 
born again signifies nothing less than the infusion 
of a new principle of spiritual life into the soul, 
whereby it becomes both inclined and enabled to 
perform spiritual actions, acceptable unto God. It 
signifies a re-impression of the Divine image upon 
the soul; the soul itself remaining the same in its 
essence, but becoming radically changed in its 
qualities, desires, and objects. 



NATURE OF REGENERATION. 11 



CHAPTER II. 

NATURE OF REGENERATION. 

Regeneration implies conviction of sin, a Divine 
illumination of the understanding, a renovation of 
the will, a rectification of the affections, and a 
sanctification of the body itself. 

In the new birth the soul is convinced of sin. 
To that change in the moral state of the soul, 
that renovation of its faculties in which the new 
birth consists, such conviction of sin is indispensa- 
bly necessary. This conviction the Holy Spirit 
works in the mind, when he so clears the soul's 
vision as to enable it to see the guilt of sin, and 
when he gives to the sinner a realizing apprehen- 
sion of the wrath of God as the just desert of sin. 
The special means used by the Spirit to convince 
of sin and misery, is the Divine law ; for by the 
law is the knowledge of sin. By a view of the holy 
commandments of the law, the sinner is convinced 
of the evil nature of sin ; he sees it to be " exceeding 
sinful/ ' By a view of the fearful threat enings 
of the law, he is convinced of the guilt of sin; 



12 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

he sees that it " deserves God's wrath and curse, 
both in this life and that which is to come." 

But this conviction is not uniform in all, nor 
produced in a uniform manner. In some, it is a 
sudden, intense, and overwhelming sense of sin, 
darted into the soul, as it were, from the point of 
a fiery arrow. In others, it is the gradual result 
of reading, meditation, and prayer ; and is more 
subdued and calm in its tone. Sometimes, the 
Spirit gives the sinner a view of the fountain of 
sin in his heart; at other times, he shows him some 
particular sin in all its varied and horrible aggra- 
vations, or he draws up a whole catalogue of these, 
and sets them in dread array before him. In one 
case, this law-work is very short ; the sinner scarcely 
knows what legal terrors are ; for, simultaneously 
with the view of his ruin, is the view of the recov- 
ery; he no sooner sees his sins than he sees the 
all-sufficient righteousness of Christ, and sweetly 
embraces it as the refuge of his soul ; he is healed 
almost as soon as he is wounded ; he feels the smart 
and instantly looks to Christ for relief. In another 
case, a terrible light is let into the sinner's mind ; 
he sees his heart to be a sink of corruptions, full of 
loathsome lusts and horrid enmity against God, a 
very chamber of imagery, filled with all manner of 
abominable idols ; he is pierced through and through 
with a sense of his awful guilt ; he cries out in the 
bitterness of his anguish, " What shall I do?" and 
he lies for days, or weeks, or even months and 



NATURE OF REGENERATION. 13 

years, under the most distressing apprehension of 
the Divine wrath, before he is cheered with a view 
of the Divine mercy in the pardon of his sins. But 
whatever be the gentleness or the power cf the 
Spirit's operation, and whatever the method he 
takes in dealing with the soul in reference to its 
eternal interests, in all cases where a saving work 
is wrought, conviction of sin must be of such strength 
as to humble the sinner, to make him feel his need 
of Christ and his salvation, to cause him to fall 
down at the foot of the cross in lowly confes- 
sion of his guilt, and to bring him to the resolution 
to forsake his sins and cast himself on the sovereign 
mercy of God for pardon and eternal life. 

But, while we maintain that regeneration pre- 
supposes a sense of sin and of our liability to the 
just displeasure of God, we must guard against the 
error of supposing that conviction of sin, dread of 
punishment, anxiety for deliverance, outward refor- 
mation, attendance on the external means of grace, 
sorrow for sin springing from a fear of its conse- 
quences, or any similar exercises and works consti- 
tute a condition of welcome in coming to Christ, or 
a qualification warranting us to come. It would 
follow from such a view, that the invitations of the 
gospel are addressed only to awakened and anxious 
sinners. Few things could tend more directly or 
strongly to foster the natural pride of the human 
heart than such a doctrine, since it must necessarily' 
teach men to look upon themselves as the favourites 
2 



14 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

of heaven, while yet they are in a state of unbelief 
and rebellion against God. This was the error of 
the Remonstrants of Holland, against which the 
Synod of Dort lifted up its voice ; a grave and 
dangerous error, well calculated to drown in per- 
dition the souls of those who receive it. 

But, on the other hand, it is no less an error 
that any sinner will apply to Christ without seeing 
and feeling his need of him. It is one thing to 
hold that conviction of sin is necessary as a warrant 
to apply to the Saviour, and quite another to plead 
for it as necessary, in the very nature of things, to 
a compliance with the warrant, which the sinner 
has independently of such conviction. The con- 
sciousness of disease is not necessary in order that 
one may have the right to apply to a physician ; 
yet no man will apply for a cure without a convic- 
tion that he is sick. Just so with the sinner. He 
may come and welcome to Christ at any time ; but 
sinners never will come, till conviction of sin, a sense 
of their spiritual malady, drives them to him. So 
the Bible represents the matter. It assigns, as the 
reason why Christ is rejected by the bulk of 
mankind, the fact that they are whole in their own 
eyes, and therefore think they need no physician. 
Hence it follows that to be convinced of sin is a 
necessary prerequisite to our applying to Christ ; 
such conviction, however, not being of the nature 
of a warrant entitling us to come to him, but rather 
a powerful motive constraining us to come. 



NATURE OF REGENERATION. 15 

In the new birth the understanding is savingly 
enlightened in the truth. 

This illumination of the mind is properly the first 
effect of the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. 
In the creation of the material world, the first com- 
mand of the Almighty was, "Let there be light." 
The production of this radiant element was the 
primal effect of creative power. In this respect the 
analogy between the old creation and the new is 
perfect. The comparison is expressly made by the 
apostle in 2 Cor. iv. 6 : " God, who commanded 
the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in 
our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of 
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Chris t." 

In setting forth the moral state of fallen man, 
the Scriptures mainly insist on four particulars : 
the depravity of the mind, the depravity of the 
will, the depravity of the conscience, and the de- 
pravity of the affections ; whence result spiritual 
blindness, stubbornness, insensibility, and sensuality. 
With the first of these only are we concerned in 
the present chapter. All men, since the fall, are, 
by nature, in a condition of spiritual darkness. 
However wise, learned, or skilful they may be in 
worldly affairs, in spiritual things they are dark, 
blind, ignorant, and foolish, till they are " renewed 
in the spirit of their mind. ,, This spiritual dark- 
ness is either objective or subjective ; that is to say, 
it is either on the mind, arising from a want of the 
means of knowledge, which is the case with those 



16 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

who are deprived of Divine revelation ; or it is in 
the mind, arising from a want of ability to discern 
spiritual things, though outwardly revealed, which 
is the case with all men in the state of unregener- 
acy. In this respect, spiritual darkness is perfectly 
analogous to natural darkness ; this latter being, in 
like manner, outward or inward : outward when it 
arises from the absence of a luminous body ; in- 
ward, when it results from such a defect in the 
organ of vision as destroys the power of seeing. 

This doctrine of a universal spiritual darkness, 
in unrenewed men, is very humbling, and therefore 
very distasteful to the natural pride of the human 
heart. Hence, when our Saviour, in one of his 
discourses, charged this blindness upon mankind, 
the Pharisees, with scorn and indignation, repelled 
the accusation with the question, u Are we blind 
also?" Nevertheless, it is, unequivocally, a doc- 
trine of the Bible. 

That it is one of the great functions of the Holy 
Spirit, in regeneration, to impart light, is clear, in 
the first place, from the names he bears. He is 
called the Spirit of knowledge, the Spirit of wisdom, 
the Spirit of truth, and the Spirit of revelation in 
the knowledge of Jesus Christ. 

Nor is the same thing less clear, in the second 
place, from many plain Scripture testimonies. The 
Bible account of our condition, prior to regenera- 
tion, is, that our understanding is darkened, and 
that we are alienated from the life of God, through 



NATURE OF REGENERATION. 17 

the ignorance that is in us, because of the blindness 
of our hearts. Nay, in our unregenerate state, we 
are even said to be darkness itself. Solomon as- 
sures us that evil men understand not judgment ; 
Daniel, that none of the wicked understand ; and 
the evangelical historian, that the light shineth in 
darkness. Most illustrious and convincing is the 
testimony of the Apostle in 1 Cor. ii. 4 : " But the 
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit 
of God ; for they are foolishness unto him ; neither 
can he know them, because they are spiritually 
discerned." Other like passages might be cited; 
but let these suffice, as the Scriptural representa- 
tion of the darkness of unregeneracy. 

From all this it would logically follow that, if 
we are ever made wise unto salvation, there must 
be a work of spiritual illumination wrought in our 
understanding ; and that, until this is accomplished, 
the gospel, though in itself the wisdom of God, will 
yet be accounted foolishness by us. And to this 
effect also, the testimony of Scripture is full and 
clear. The very purpose for which Paul was com- 
missioned and sent forth to preach the gospel, was, 
he informs us, " To open men's eyes, and to turn 
them from darkness unto light." Accordingly, in 
writing to the Ephesians, he thus describes the 
process of their conversion : " Ye were sometimes 
darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord." To 
the same effect he says to the Colossians, " Who 
(meaning, as the context shows, God the Father) 



18 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

hath delivered us from the power of darkness." 
Again, addressing the Thessalonian converts, he 
says : " Ye are all the children of light, and the 
children of the day ; we are not of the night, nor of 
the darkness." In like manner and to the like 
effect, Peter declares concerning the people of God, 
that they " have been called out of darkness into 
his marvellous light.' ' John also told the Chris- 
tians of his day that he wrote unto them, because 
the darkness was past, and the true light now shone, 
adding, " Ye have an unction from the Holy One, 
and ye know all things." Remarkable is the testi- 
mony of the Psalmist : " The secret of the Lord is 
with them that fear him ; and he will show them 
his covenant." 

Thus clearly does it appear, from Scripture, that, 
in the words of the great Owen, " Spiritual dark- 
ness is upon all men, till God, by an almighty but 
effectual work of the Spirit, shine into them, or 
create light in them. And this darkness is that 
'light within,' which some boast of in themselves 
and others." 

It is proper briefly to declare the nature and 
scope of this illumination. Its province is broad 
and comprehensive. It extends to the whole sys- 
tem of revealed truth, but has special reference to 
those truths which are fundamental, and of saving 
efficacy. Under the illuminating power of the 
Spirit in regeneration, the scheme of redemption 
and the doctrines which circle round it, are revealed 



NATURE OF REGENERATION. 19 

to the sinner's apprehension with alight, and power, 
and attractive beauty, of which he was before wholly 
unconscious. He is enlightened in the knowledge 
of himself; so that he sees his guilty, wretched, 
and perishing condition, and so is prepared and 
inclined to accept the proffered boon of divine for- 
giveness and mercy. He is enlightened in the 
knowledge of God; so that he no longer looks upon 
him as a tyrant demanding an impossible obedience, 
but sees in him a tender, gracious, and loving Father, 
and so is prepared and inclined to return to him 
with love and delight, instead of fleeing from him 
w T ith hatred and terror. ' He is enlightened in the 
knowledge of Christ ; of his person, offices, and 
work as Media/tor, of his righteousness, as the surety 
of the new covenant, and of the fulness, freeness, 
and suitableness of his atonement, so that he sees 
his ability and willingness to save to the uttermost, 
and so is prepared and inclined to trust in him for 
pardon, justification, sanctifying grace, and eternal 
glory. This divine and saving illumination works 
a change in all his views. The evil of sin, the ex- 
cellence of holiness, the vanity of earth, the glory 
of heaven, the preciousness of time, the vastness of 
eternity, the folly of self-indulgence, the wisdom 
of self-denial, the worth of the soul, the sweetness 
of ordinances ; in a word, all the solemn and stu- 
pendous realities of the invisible and eternal world, 
are seen and appreciated, in the new and divine 
light which streams in upon the soul. 



20 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

Nevertheless, all the truth necessary to salvation, 
it is pertinent and perhaps not unimportant to ob- 
serve here, is revealed in the written word. The 
appropriate work of the Spirit, in regeneration, is 
the removal of obstructions, which cloud the 
spiritual perceptions of the unrenewed man. His 
office resembles that of a surgeon, who removes a 
cataract from the natural eyes. The man upon 
whom this operation has been performed, had pre- 
viously lived in an atmosphere of light, and had 
been surrounded by a profusion of exquisite beau- 
ties. But the organ of vision was diseased, ob- 
structed, and incapable of exerting its function ; 
and hence all those beauties were to him as though 
they had not been. So it is with the soul in its 
unrenewed state. The Bible contains a revelation 
of all the doctrines to be believed, all the precepts 
to be obeyed, all the perils to be avoided, all the in- 
terests to be secured, all the graces to be cultivated, 
and all the promises which minister courage and 
strength in the Christian race. But there is no 
power of spiritual vision in a dead soul. The car- 
nal mind is blinded by prejudice, captivated by 
sense, misled by the maxims of worldly policy, and 
cheated by the illusions of the devil. The letter 
of the word may have been profoundly studied, and 
distinct notions of truth attained by the natural 
understanding ; but these notions lie cold and 
dead in the regions of the intellect. They have 
not penetrated to the heart, with which, the apostle 



NATURE OF REGENERATION. 21 

tells us, "man believeth unto righteousness." The 
intellect has mastered the doctrines of the Bible as 
mere objects of thought ; but the soul discerns not 
their real excellence, feels not their constraining 
energy, melts not under their moving appeals, and 
lives not by their vivifying power. In order to this, 
the Holy Ghost must take away the thick films of 
spiritual blindness, and open the eyes of the un- 
derstanding to a true spiritual discernment. 

The discovery of unknown truth is not the ob- 
ject of the Spirit's illumination. So to represent 
the matter would insult the Author of revelation. 
" The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the 
soul ;" that is, it is sufficient as an external means 
of conversion. There is no defect to be supplied 
by any further Divine communications. The per- 
petuity of inspiration is the proud dogma of a pro- 
fane philosophy, or the corrupt gloss of a rational- 
izing theology, but one remove from it. The doc- 
trine of new revealings by the Spirit belongs to the 
superstitions of a dark age. Let enthusiasts boast 
of dreams, and visions, and raptures, and revela- 
tions ; every sober-minded Christian can trace all 
his spiritual perceptions, and holy tempers, and de- 
vout feelings to the records of prophets and apos- 
tles, or to the words of men drawn from those in- 
spired teachings, and in harmony with them. 



22 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

In regeneration, the will is renewed in righteousness 
and true holiness. 

The understanding is that faculty of the soul 
■which thinks, compares, reasons, and judges. The 
function of the will is to choose or refuse. It is 
the will which embraces or rejects an action, or 
course of actions, submitted to its choice. The un- 
derstanding weighs objects ; the will determines 
upon them. 

The human will, considered as an object of philo- 
sophical inquiry, is shrouded in deep mystery ; but, 
if it be considered as an object of practical inquiry, 
few subjects are less involved in difficulty. The 
great question is in regard to the freedom of the 
will. The point in debate here relates, not to the 
fact of the will's freedom, for that all admit ; but 
to the nature and extent of its freedom. The hinge 
of the controversy lies in the question, whether it 
be essential to true freedom that the will, together 
with its actual choice in a given case, should be en- 
dowed with a power of contrary choice. It is here 
that issue is joined. The exact point is this : The 
will, under given circumstances, chooses a particular 
object. Has it the power, at that very time and 
under those very circumstances, to make a directly 
opposite choice ? And is such power of contrary 
choice, under conditions every way identical, essen- 
tial to its freedom ? 

On this question parties divide, and range them- 



NATURE OF REGENERATION. 23 

selves under different banners. There are diffi- 
culties on both sides of the question. If you affirm 
that the power of contrary choice is essential to the 
freedom of the will, the opponent of your theory 
instantly retorts, and, as it seems to me, with un- 
answerable force : " Where is the certainty, then, 
that in the cycles of eternity, Gabriel and Paul may 
not use their ability and lapse from righteousness ?" 
If you deny the power of contrary choice as an at- 
tribute of the will's freedom, it is urged, with equal 
vehemence, although, as I think, with less of logical 
power, that, under your system, man is but a ma- 
chine, impelled by an irresistible necessity in the 
direction which he actually takes, and that your 
doctrine is identical with the fatalism of the ancient 
Stoics and the modern Turks. Each of these ob- 
jections, which are mutually urged by the opposite 
parties in this controversy, becomes, in the hands 
of an astute and skilful dialectician, a weapon of 
prodigious force, whose heavy and well aimed blows 
it is very hard to parry. 

Yet, intricate and perplexed as are the specula- 
tive aspects of this deep theme, there is no practical 
difficulty whatsoever attending it. Every unregen- 
erate person knows that he is perfectly free in his 
wickedness. He knows that he is under no irre- 
sistible impulsion to sin. He knows that he might, 
if he would, act differently from what he does. Of 
all this he has the high evidence of consciousness. 
On the other hand, every regenerate person knows, 



24 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

by the same unimpeachable testimony of conscious- 
ness, that, in yielding himself to God, there was no 
force, no compulsion, no unavoidable and imperious 
necessity, acting upon him from without. He is 
conscious of entire liberty of choice. And yet it 
is not more certain that an insect cannot make a 
world, than it is that an unrenewed man, so remain- 
ing, will not choose God, and holiness, and heaven, 
as his portion. 

The whole explanation of this phenomenon, — 
and it is an ample explanation, — lies in the plain 
and certain fact, that the choices of the will, when 
they relate to moral objects, are always determined 
by the moral state of the person choosing. The 
refined cannot choose the company of the vulgar. 
The learned cannot choose the society of the igno- 
rant. The impure cannot choose the society of the 
pure, nor the pure that of the impure. The man 
of confirmed veracity cannot utter a lie. The per- 
fectly honest man cannot commit a fraud. The 
man of true honour cannot take a bribe. All these 
are felt to be impossibilities. But why ? Because 
each w r ould contradict a permanent moral state of 
the chooser; would be, in effect, a denial of his 
moral nature. It is a law of the will, then, as fixed 
as the laws of gravitation, that its moral choices 
will ever correspond with the moral state of the 
chooser. Hence an unregenerate man, remaining 
unregenerate, will never choose holiness. True, he 
has the natural power to do so, if by this be meant 



NATURE OF REGENERATION. 25 

no more than that it is the natural and proper func- 
tion of the will to choose between several objects 
proposed to its election. But he lacks the moral 
power ; that is, his moral state is such that, until a 
radical change is effected, to choose holiness would 
be an absolute self-contradiction, a denial of his 
own nature, and therefore a flat impossibility ; the 
bias and impulsion of his soul being ever and only 
to evil, till it is changed by the grace of God. And 
this is just what the great Teacher affirms, when he 
says that " Satan cannot cast out Satan." There 
is an obstinate and overmastering inward determi- 
nation of the fallen will to evil. The idea of de- 
pravity conquering and expelling itself is incongru- 
ous and absurd. As well might we look to see 
death produce life, or enmity turn itself into love, 
or pollution produce purity. 

From all this it results that the will of man 
needs a renovation, such a change as will secure a 
reversal of its choices. To renew the will is to in- 
cline it to spiritual good as its chief aim and highest 
joy ; to render it conformable to the will of God ; 
to implant in it a new and fixed propensity to what 
is holy and amiable, and a new and fixed opposition 
to what is sinful and hateful, in the sight of God : 
to all which it is, both by nature and practice, to- 
tally averse. Now, the renewal of the will naturally 
accompanies the spiritual and supernatural illumi- 
nation of the mind, as already explained; for, al- 
though slight and transient convictions of duty 



26 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

may issue in nothing but slight and transient re- 
solves of amendment, yet a thorough enlightenment 
of the understanding in the knowledge of truth 
and duty, accompanied by deep and earnest convic- 
tions of duty, both inwrought in the soul by the 
Divine Spirit, — may and must reach and pervade 
the will, directing and commanding its choices. 

But the Spirit's agency in the new creation is 
always in harmony with the nature of the subject, 
that is to say, it never violates the law of free agency. 
Hence he is said " to work in us both to will and 
to do." No violence is done to the will. No con- 
straint is laid upon it. No compulsion is used 
towards it. Compulsion of the will is a self-contra- 
diction. To force the will is to annihilate it, to 
destroy its very nature as will. Choice necessarily 
implies freedom. When the Lord sends the rod of 
his strength out of Zion, a willing people is made 
in the day of his power. There is an inward, secret, 
gracious exertion of almighty power put forth upon 
the will in regeneration, by which it is renewed, 
vivified, and enabled to act freely in its choice of 
God, and holiness and heaven. This is accom- 
plished by the implantation in the soul of a princi- 
ple of spiritual life and activity, whereby the will is 
determined to its new and heavenly actings with 
absolute certainty, yet without the least infringement 
upon its liberty. There is no change in the substance 
of the will, that being the same after as before regen- 
eration; but only in its qualities and operations. God 



NATURE OF REGENERATION. 27 

changes the corrupt nature of the will, without in- 
vading or altering its essential nature. 

The will, therefore, remains ever free, and that 
from the very necessity of the case, from its essen- 
tial properties as will ; free in its original innocency, 
free in its wicked apostasy, free in its gracious 
renovation. Yet in each of these states, there was, 
or is, a controlling bias of the soul towards objects 
congenial to its moral condition. In the state of 
innocency, there was a natural bias to spiritual 
objects ; in the fallen and unregenerate state, there 
is a depraved bias to carnal and sensual objects ; 
while, in the renewed state, there is an implanted 
gracious bias, though with many oppositions of 
nature, to whatever is apprehended to be consonant 
to the Divine mind. 

Of most of what is advanced above, every regen- 
erated person has the evidence in his own conscious- 
ness. We never hear, from such an one, any com- 
plaint of violence done to his will, or of his being 
compelled to the choice of holiness. He is, indeed, 
deeply sensible of the power of God upon his soul ; 
he feels, acknowledges, and adores the hand of the 
Lord in his regeneration ; but he is so far from 
thinking or complaining of any compulsion or 
hardship in the case, that he looks upon the change 
as an unspeakable mercy, and rejoices in it exceed- 
ingly. While he knows that his soul is now athirst 
for God, and willingly chooses and delights in his 
ways, he is no less sensible that this marvellous 



28 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

transformation, by which a willing slave to Satan 
has become the willing servant of the Lord, was 
effected by the sovereign, gracious, and almighty 
power of him who works in his ransomed ones " to 
will and to do of his own good pleasure." 

How the Spirit works this change in the will we 
know not. His agency is expressly compared to 
the wind, a powerful but invisible agent. We know 
only that no compulsive influence is used. The 
sinner acts all the time with entire freedom, of 
which, indeed, he has the evidence of his own con- 
sciousness. All we can say is, that he is " made 
willing in the day of God's power." An absolutely 
irresistible Divine power and an absolutely perfect 
human freedom concur in this change ; whether or 
not our narrow, weak, purblind intellect can ex- 
plain, or even comprehend, the mystery. 

In the new birth, the heart is changed ; the affections 
are purged, rectified, and fixed upon their proper 
objects. 

In general : Whereas, before regeneration, sin 
was rolled as a sweet morsel under the tongue ; 
now God, Christ, holiness, and heaven are the 
mainspring of the soul's activities, the chief sources 
of its joy, the ultimate term to which all its aspira- 
tions and efforts are reduced. Enmity to God, 
corrupt affection, carnal prejudice, depraved incli- 
nation no longer reign; but the soul, with delight 
and complacency, cleaves unto God and his ways. 



NATURE OF REGENERATION. 29 

In particular : Before regeneration, the heart 
loved the world and the things of the world, and 
hated God, his people, and his law r s ; now it loves 
the objects of its former enmity, and hates the ob- 
jects of its former choice and affection. Before 
regeneration, the heart desired the pleasures, pro- 
fits, and honours of earth, and was averse to spirit- 
ual employments and joys ; now it longs after 
communion with God, conformity to Christ, the 
indwelling of the Spirit, and a share in the heavenly 
inheritance, and feels an aversion to the muddy 
streams of earthly gratification. Before regenera- 
tion, the heart took delight in carnal and sensual 
pleasures, and was filled with sorrow at their loss ; 
now it delights in God, his word, his will, and his 
ordinances, and grieves over the hidings of his face 
and the remains of indwelling sin. Before regen- 
eration, the heart hoped for what it loved, desired, 
and delighted in ; that is, earthly possessions and 
carnal gratifications in their various forms, and 
feared physical suffering, the loss of worldly wealth 
and honour, and the frowns and scoffs of men ; now 
it hopes for final and complete deliverance from sin 
and the possession and enjoyment of eternal life in 
the beatific vision of God, and fears the displeasure 
of God and that divine wrath which is revealed 
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. 
Thus do love and hatred, desire and aversion, joy 
and sorrow, hope and fear, and whatever other af- 
fections have a dwelling in the human heart, change 
3* 



30 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

their direction and their objects in the regenerate. 
All the fruits of the Spirit are produced in them ; 
all his graces are imparted to them ; and the heart, 
before a wilderness overgrown with briers and 
thorns, is transformed into the garden of the Lord, 
filled with plants of righteousness ; too often, alas ! 
feeble and sickly in their growth, but still yielding 
some blossoms and fruits of holiness, and destined 
hereafter, when transplanted to a more friendly 
clime, to flourish in immortal bloom and fruitful- 
ness. 

In the new birth, the body itself is sanctified and 
consecrated to Gfod. 

When the soul has been convinced of its darkness, 
pollution, guilt, and misery ; when a gracious light 
has shone upon the mind, revealing to it divine 
truths in their native excellency, beauty, and at- 
tractiveness ; when the will, under the influence of 
this supernatural illumination, has embraced these 
truths as more precious than gold, or pearls, or ru- 
bies ; and when the affections, purged and subli- 
mated, are drawn towards spiritual and heavenly ob- 
jects, and cleave to them with complacency and de- 
light ; the new and divine temper thus inwrought 
in the soul, communicates itself even to the members 
of the body ; and hence the apostle tells us that 
these, which were before " instruments of unright- 
eousness to sin," are now yielded as " instruments of 
righteousness unto God." 



NATURE OF REGENERATION. 31 

President Edwards has the following beautiful 
passage in his diary, bearing upon this point: "I 
have this day," says he, " been before God, and 
have given myself, all that I am and have, to God ; 
so that I am in no respect my own. I can chal- 
lenge no right in myself, in this understanding, this 
will, these affections. Neither have I a right to this 
body, or any of its members ; no right to this 
tongue, these hands, these feet, these eyes, these 
ears. I have given myself clean away." 

The consecration of the body to God and the 
sanctification of its members, is a point much in- 
sisted on by the sacred writers. " Know ye not," 
says Paul, addressing himself to Christians, " that 
ye are the temple of God? If any man defile 
the temple of God, him shall God destroy." Again, 
the same inspired penman tells us, that he " kept 
under his body and brought it into subjection." 
The eye of a Christian ought never to read any 
impure book, nor voluntarily look upon any sinful 
exhibitions, much less take delight in them. The 
ear of a Christian should never voluntarily hear 
any profane or impure discourse, nor listen to the 
strains of voluptuous music. The hands of a Chris- 
tian ought never to do any work which may not be 
to the glory of God and the good of man. The 
feet of a Christian ought never to bear him to any 
place where the name of his Saviour is likely to be 
blasphemed, or his own Christian profession dishon- 
oured ; his prayer, like that of Moses, must ever be, 



32 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

" If thy presence go not with me, carry me not up 
hence/' The tongue of a Christian should never 
indulge in the utterance of falsehood, slander, pro- 
faneness, or impurity. But eye, ear, hand, foot, 
tongue, and all other members, in all their functions, 
should be used in a manner and to purposes be- 
coming a servant of Jesus, redeemed by his grace, 
justified by his righteousness, washed in his blood, 
united to his person, and sealed by his Spirit to the 
day of final and eternal redemption. 



INSTANTANEOUSNESS OF REGENERATION. 33 



CHAPTER III. 

INSTANTANEOUSNESS OF REGENERATION. 

The exact moment when the new birth takes 
place may not be known ; possibly, in most cases, 
is not known ; and the previous law-work, the ante- 
cedent state of conviction, concern, and anxiety, 
may have been of longer or shorter duration. Never- 
theless, there is and must be, a moment when the 
heart is changed, and when the man, who was before 
characteristically an unbeliever and a sinner, be- 
comes characteristically a believer and a Christian. 
We cannot even form a conception of an interme- 
diate state between regeneracy and unregeneracy. 
In a natural sense, a man must be either dead or 
alive ; and this is equally true in a spiritual sense. 
To predicate spiritual death and regeneration, or 
spiritual life and unregeneracy, of the same person 
at the same time, would be a self-contradiction. 
Hence the transition from death to life must, in the 
nature of things, be instantaneous. There is not, 
nor can there be, a single moment, when the soul is 
neither regenerate nor unregenerate. Every man 
must be in the state of nature or the state of grace, 



34 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

the child of God or the child of Satan — an heir of 
heaven or an heir of hell. 

This is the voice of reason, and the teaching of 
Scripture is in harmony with it. 

That regeneration is not a gradual but an instan- 
taneous work, appears from various instances of 
it, found on the pages of Holy Scripture, which 
cannot be readily explained on any other theory. 

Let any one examine those passages in the Gos- 
pels (Matt. ix. 9; Mark i. 16—20; and John i. 
43), where we have an account of the call of Mat- 
thew, Peter, Andrew, James, John, and Philip ; and 
he will readily satisfy himself on this point. When 
the Saviour met with these men, and invited them 
to his service, they were engaged in other pursuits, 
and had no thought of changing their manner of 
life. But when they heard his voice, and felt the 
constraining power of his grace, they instantly left 
all and followed him. Along with that call, there 
went a divine energy, which caused them immedi- 
ately to act in a manner altogether new, and to 
adopt principles and habits, quite alien to all they 
had felt or practised before. So, also, according to 
a record contained in John i. 49, no sooner was the 
Messiah revealed to Nathaniel, than he at once re- 
ceived him as his Lord and Saviour, crying out with 
love, gratitude, and trust, " Rabbi, thou art the Son 
of God, thou art the king of Israel. ,, Here, again, 
was an instantaneous work of regenerating grace. 



INSTANTANEOUSNESS OF REGENERATION. 35 

In like manner, nothing can be plainer or more cer- 
tain, than that the change in the three thousand on 
the day of Pentecost was wrought instantaneously. 
They heard the word, received it gladly, felt the 
converting power of the Spirit, and were immedi- 
ately baptized as regenerated persons. The thief 
on the cross, Zaccheus the publican, the jailer at 
Philippi, Lydia of Thyatira, and Dionysius and 
Damaris of Athens, are other instances of the same 
kind. But the most illustrious example and proof 
of the instantaneous nature of regeneration is the 
case of Saul of Tarsus. He himself tells us that, 
when it pleased God to reveal his Son to him, im- 
mediately he conferred not with flesh and blood. 
Gal. i. 16. And the author of the Acts of the 
Apostles (ix. 4-6) informs us, that when Jesus ap- 
peared to him, on the way to Damascus, and de- 
clared who he was, on the instant the fierce and 
bloody persecutor was converted into the meek and 
obedient disciple; for when the Lord said, "lam 
Jesus whom thou persecutest," he, without a mo- 
ment's delay, responded, " Lord, what wilt thou 
have me to do ?" Who can fail to perceive that, in 
all the instances enumerated above — and others 
might probably be gleaned from the sacred record 
and added to the list — the change from death unto 
life was as sudden as it was glorious ? 



36 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

That regeneration is not effected by slotv degrees, but 
in a moment of time, is evident from the fact that 
this work is termed in Scripture a calling, and the 
subjects of it are said to be called. 
" To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called 
to be saints," Rom. i. 7. " And we know that all 
things work together for good to them that love 
God, to them who are the called according to his 
purpose. * * * Moreover, whom he did predesti- 
nate, them he also called/' &c, Rom. viii. 28, 30. 
" Faithful is he that calleth you," 1 Thess. v. 24. 
" That they which are called might receive the 
promise of eternal inheritance." Heb. ix. 15. 
" Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly 
calling," Heb. iii. 1. "Who hath called us with 
an holy calling," 2 Tim. i. 9. u For ye see your 
calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after 
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are 
called," 1 Cor. i. 26. There cannot be a reason- 
able doubt, that in these and many parallel passages 
is meant that effectual calling, by which a sinner 
savingly believes and obeys the gospel ; that is, in 
which he is born again, and renewed in the temper 
of his mind. Indeed, as Dr. Hodge has remarked, 
in commenting on Rom. i. 1, in the Epistles of the 
New Testament this word is rarely, if ever, used in 
reference to one externally called or invited to any 
office or blessing, but uniformly expresses the idea 
of an effectual calling. But what inference is 
warranted by the fact, that when Christ calls sin- 



INSTANTANEOUSNESS OF REGENERATION. 87 

ners, ho regenerates them, and that his saving work 
of conversion is indicated by the term calling ? 
Plainly this, that the work is done at once, and not 
gradually. He speaks, and it is done. He does but 
call, and the sinner responds by an immediate return. 
What more striking proof can we have that regen- 
eration is an instantaneous work ? 

The similitudes employed in Scripture to set forth 
and illustrate regeneration evince the instantan- 
eous nature of the work. 

The work of God's renewing grace is therein 
compared to the work of creation and the work of 
raising the dead. 

It is compared to the work of creation. But 
when God created the material and visible universe, 
he spake, and it was done. He said : Let there 
be light, and there was light. He said : Let the 
earth bring forth grass, let there be lights in the 
firmament of heaven, let the waters bring forth 
abundantly the moving creature ; and it was so. 
The omnific word was instantly followed by the 
effect. So in the new creation, God speaks and it 
is done. The analogy is expressly affirmed by the 
Apostle. God, he says, who commanded the light 
to shine out of darkness, shines in our hearts to 
give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of 
God in the face of Jesus Christ. As in the natural 
so in the new spiritual creation, the effect of the 
creative fiat is as sudden as it is stupendous. 
4 



38 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

Again, the work of God's renewing grace is com- 
pared to a resurrection. But raising the dead is an 
instantaneous work. When Jesus called " Lazarus, 
come forth," he that was dead came forth instantly. 
Not a moment intervened between the command 
and the execution. The sleeping dust at once felt 
the vitalizing energy of his word, and was alive. 
The Scriptures pronounce unregenerate persons to 
be dead. Regeneration restores them to life. Now 
in nature there is no intermediate state, there can 
be none, between life and death. When a person 
is dead, he has not the least degree of life ; and, 
conversely, when a person has the least degree of 
life, he is alive. Hence, if the comparison in which 
the new birth is likened to a resurrection be aptly 
chosen, regeneration must be an instantaneous 
work. As, along with the call to Lazarus there 
went an almighty power, imparting natural life at 
once, so the call of Christ to sinners is accompanied 
by a divine power, which, at the very instant when 
it is issued, infuses spiritual life into the dead soul. 

That regeneration is an instantaneous work is still 
further evident from a classification of men com- 
mon in the Scriptures, 

The Bible divides all mankind into two classes, 
viz. the righteous and the wicked, saints and sin- 
ners, believers and unbelievers, the sheep and the 
goats, the friends and the enemies of God. There 
is no middle ground between these two classes ; 



INSTANTANEOUSNESS OF REGENERATION. 39 

every human being belongs to the one or the other 
of them. Further, the Scripture represents the 
persons who belong to these classes respectively as 
travelling two different and, indeed, opposite ways ; 
the broad way, whose end is destruction, and the 
narrow way, whose end is everlasting life. Every 
child of Adam is treading in the one or the other 
of these ways. " To heaven or hell we daily bend 
our course. " Witsius has well shown the absurdity 
of supposing an intermediate state between spiritual 
life and death, by inquiring where a person, dying 
in that state, would go. Would he be received into 
heaven ? But heaven is open only to the actually 
regenerate, according to the clear sentence of our 
Saviour in his conversation with Nicodemus. Would 
he be thrust down to hell ? But hell is the portion 
of unbelievers, who have all their life walked in the 
broad way. 

That regeneration is an instantaneous and not a 
progressive work is very clear. But there is a 
practical question which arises just at this stage of 
the discussion, of no little interest, viz. Whether it 
is essential to a comfortable assurance of our being 
born again, that we be able to specify the time and 
circumstances of our regeneration. 

It is important that a Scriptural answer be given 
to this question, to the end that, on the one hand, 
the self-deceiver may not be soothed and flattered 



40 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

to presume on his conversion, and, on the other, 
that the sincere but trembling believer may not be 
tormented with needless alarms, nor be tempted to 
write bitter things against himself, to the dishonour 
of God's grace and the anguish of his own soul. 
Many a dear child of God has been troubled with 
distressing doubts and fears concerning his spirit- 
ual condition, because he could not tell the time and 
place when and where the work of regenerating 
grace was wrought in his heart. Since writing the 
very last sentence, I have seen a letter from a 
Christian mother, the wife of a Professor in one of 
our Theological Seminaries, giving an account of 
the death of her son, in which she says : " He 
lamented that he had done nothing for Christ, and 
at times felt as though he could not be saved. His 
father had many and interesting conversations Avith 
him on the nature of faith, to all which he assented, 
but sometimes feared that he was not included in 
the purposes of mercy, because he could not re- 
member those deep seasons of distress recorded by 
some Christians. He never had those ecstasies, and 
bright visions, and rapturous joys of which we 
sometimes read, but his mind settled into a clear 
and calm acquiescence in the will of God, and steady 
trust in his Saviour." 

Innumerable are the instances in which the peo- 
ple of God, like this young man, have their fears 
excited and their peace broken by similar appre- 
hensions, arising from similar causes. They hear 



INSTANTANEOUSNESS OF REGENERATION. 41 

others, in relating their religious experience, tell 
of pungent convictions, of terror and anguish, caused 
by the view of their awful guilt, of fearful agita- 
tions and conflicts on giving up their sins, of the 
sweet hope of immortal glory springing up suddenly 
in the soul, as the sun at evening breaks out after 
a storm, of rapturous views of the Saviour, and 
irresistible longings after communion with God ; in 
short, they hear them giving them most minute 
details of the time, place, and circumstances of their 
conversion. At such recitals the Christian is often 
depressed, disheartened, and inclined to take up a 
bitter lamentation against himself. " See, my 
soul,'' he is ready to say, " how it is with others. 
They know the time and the method of the Spirit's 
operation in their souls. They are able to tell 
when and how God met them by his grace, and 
sent them help out of the sanctuary. Their con- 
victions, their struggles, their repentance, their first 
act of trust in the Saviour, the first dawn of hope, 
the first inflowing of love, peace, and joy into their 
souls, are all distinctly traced on the memory. How 
different is my case from theirs ! I have no such 
experience as this. If I were truly converted, if I had 
received the grace of God in truth and not in name 
only, would it be thus ? Have I not reason to con- 
clude that I am deceived as to my spiritual state ; 
that my religion is but the effect of education or 
imitation ; and that I have only the form of godli- 
ness, while I am a stranger to its living power?" 



42 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

To all this I would respond, in general, that we 
cannot be too jealous of ourselves. We have in- 
spired authority for the statement, that " the heart 
is deceitful above all things ;" and the testimony 
of every day's experience and observation comfirms 
its truth. Many, in their own and others' estima- 
tion, have stood fair for heaven, who have at last 
awaked in hell. Let him that thinketh he standeth 
take heed lest he fall. Nevertheless, in our self- 
scrutiny, we must be just, as well as cautious ; we 
must be as impartial, as we are rigid. The main 
danger, it is true, is of undue lenity towards our- 
selves ; yet the opposite error is possible. We may 
wrong ourselves, we may wrong our Saviour, by 
too stern a judgment. It is possible that, in dis- 
paraging ourselves, we may disparage the grace of 
God. We may grieve the Holy Spirit by denying 
his work in our souls. If the genuine fruits of the 
Spirit appear to ourselves in our heart, and to 
others in our life, we need not be distressed, be- 
cause we cannot remember the time or the circum- 
stances of our conversion. 

" There are diversities of operation, but the same 
Spirit." While regeneration, in the substance of 
it, is the same in all, there is no assignable or con- 
ceivable limit to the modes of the Spirit's operation 
in effecting this gracious change. Some are brought 
under agonizing terrors ; Sinai thunders long and 
loud ; the law flashes a terrific light into the con- 
science ; and their whole soul is filled with agitation 



INSTANTANEOUSNESS OF REGENERATION. 43 

and alarm. Such persons can as readily lose the 
sense of their being, as forget the day and the man- 
ner of their conversion. The change was sudden, 
visible, striking. This will generally be the case 
with the drunkard, the blasphemer, the swearer, and 
the openly vicious of every name. In other cases, 
the Spirit often proceeds in a totally different man- 
ner in his regenerating and saving work. Grace 
is gently and imperceptibly infused into the soul. 
No sudden or extraordinary impressions are made. 
The first movings of the Spirit upon the heart are 
unknown. Mount Sinai is serene as Olivet. The 
law utters no thunders ; the conscience feels no 
alarms. The Spirit distils his influences into the 
heart as silently and insensibly as the dew falls 
upon the tender grass. A saving work is wrought ; 
but the happy subject of it is himself all uncon- 
scious of the mighty transformation, till its clus- 
tering fruits begin to show themselves in his heart 
and life. The conversion of Paul was sudden, re- 
markable, and illustrious, and therefore, at the time 
of its occurrence, evident to himself and others. 
While to Samuel, on the contrary, the kingdom of 
God came not with observation ; it is probable that 
he knew not when converting grace was bestowed 
upon him, whether in unconscious infancy, or after 
reason had shed its dawning light upon his soul. 
And yet the calm and gentle prophet was as emi- 
nent for his piety in his day, as the impetuous and 
fiery apostle was in his. The great question, there- 



44 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

fore, is, not what terrors or raptures we have felt, 
nor whether we can tell the hour when a saving 
work was actually begun in us, and by what steps 
we were brought to the Redeemer ; but whether the 
true workings of grace are felt in our hearts, and 
the true marks of grace discovered in our conduct, 
and whether we can comfort ourselves and edify 
others with the genuine fruits of regeneration and 
the constant tenor of a godly life. 

Reader, are you ready to judge that you have 
not experienced a saving work of grace, because 
you have not felt those sharp convictions, those legal 
terrors, those fearful agitations, and those rapturous 
emotions of joy, which others have known ? By 
what a false standard do you judge yourself? The 
apostle sharply rebukes those Christians, who mea- 
sure themselves by themselves, and compare them- 
selves among themselves. 

The question is not whether you have had the 
same experience of terror, joy, and love, as others ; 
but whether you have been convinced of your sin- 
ful and lost estate by nature, whether you have 
seen the suitableness and sufficiency of Christ, and 
whether you receive and rest upon him alone for 
salvation. If, though with but a trembling trust, 
you can answer affirmatively these questions, it 
matters little whether or not you can call to mind 
the happy moment when God sent his converting 
grace into your heart. To deny your experience 
gf his grace on any such ground, would be to limit 



INSTANTANEOUSNESS OF REGENERATION. 45 

the Holy One of Israel, to dictate to infinite wisdom, 
to sow the seeds of continual uneasiness, and to 
unfit yourself for a cheerful discharge of your duty. 
If you have had such a view of your sin as to lead 
you humbly and willingly to accept the Saviour, and 
thankfully to devote yourself to him, you may boldly 
take the comfort of a Christian hope, since, in that 
case, you have truly closed with the Redeemer, and 
are safe within the enclosure of the covenant. 



46 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 



CHAPTER IV. 

NECESSITY OF REGENERATION. 

The change effected in regeneration is indispensably 
necessary to salvation. 

No doctrine can be more unscriptural, no heresy 
more dangerous, than that there are men and wo- 
men, who do not need to be regenerated in order to 
be saved. Surely, in such a world of semblances, 
unrealities, and flattering illusions, none need to be 
reminded that all is not gold that glitters, that the 
outside of the cup or platter may be clean, while 
the inside is full of impurity, and that whited and 
garnished sepulchres may conceal loathsome masses 
of putridity. Human nature, in its essential ele- 
ments, is the same in all men, however modified by 
temper, education, society, or other accidental cir- 
cumstances. The most amiable in disposition, the 
most refined in manners, the most orthodox in opin- 
ion, the most learned in theology, the most devout 
in externals, the most magnanimous in sentiment, 
the most upright and pure in their life, and the most 
distinguished and applauded for deeds of beneficence, 
need the renewing of the Holy Spirit as much as 



NECESSITY OF REGENERATION. 47 

the fierce, the selfish, the ignorant, the erring, the 
intemperate, the revengeful, the implacable, and the 
vicious. Religion, since the fall, is not one of those 
original principles of our nature, which, for their 
development and perfection, need only to be direc- 
ted and strengthened by education. Men cannot 
be trained to piety. Speculations based upon these 
false ideas, are indeed not uncommon in the philo- 
sophy, and, alas that we must add, in the theology 
of our times. 

Amid these speculations, which have exhumed 
and revived the proud heresy of Pelagius, the doc- 
trines of original sin and total depravity are either 
denied or ignored : and hence it is not considered, 
that to attempt to educe religion out of our nature 
as it is, is as absurd as to attempt to elicit the ope- 
rations of intellect from an irrational animal. Holy 
actions must proceed from holy principles; and 
these must be created in the soul, which, since the 
fall, is barren of all good. Men must be regenera- 
ted, before they can make progress in religion, or 
perform a single action, which the Searcher of hearts 
will approve. It is not training that is wanted, but 
renewing ; not progression, but retrogression ; not 
reformation, but transformation ; not the education 
of nature, but a change of nature ; not the discip- 
line of powers inherent in the soul, but an infusion 
into the soul of new powers and principles ; in a 
word, not the development of any spiritual life in- 
nate in man, but the impregnation and inter-pene- 



48 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

tration of man's susceptibilities and faculties with 
a new and divine life. 

But let us proceed to the proof of the doctrine 
that men must be born again or they cannot be 
saved. 

The necessity of the new birth is evident from a 
consideration of the actual condition of human 
nature. 

Behold yonder young man ! The glow of health 
lights up his whole being. He is intensely sensi- 
tive to whatever affects the body or mind. The 
beauties of nature, the creations of art, the charms 
of virtue, the strains of music, the tones of affection 
stir the depths of emotion in his soul. Look at 
him again ! The mortal struggle is over. That 
form, lately so buoyant and active, is dressed for 
burial. Hold a fresh-blown rose before it. Neither 
the beauty nor the fragrance of the queen of flowers 
touches its senses. Fire a pistol at its ear. It 
starts not at the report. The spirit-stirring flow 
of martial music causes not the eye to sparkle with 
unwonted brightness, nor the nostrils to dilate with 
kindling emotions, nor the blood to tingle in the 
veins, nor the heart to swell with unaccustomed 
daring. Even the accents of maternal tenderness 
and love, which but lately caused that manly frame 
to thrill with emotion, now fall unknown and un- 
heeded on a the dull cold ear of death." Apply 
every conceivable test of life— light, warmth, sound, 



NECESSITY OF REGENERATION. 49 

fragrance, beauty, praise, censure, affection — all 
alike are vain and useless. The man is dead. 
Sensation, emotion, hope, fear, joy, grief, desire, 
aversion, in him, are perished for ever. 

He hath no share in all that's done 
Beneath the circuit of the sun. 

This is natural death, which evidences itself by 
the absence of all signs of physical life. 

Take, now, another case, which affords an exam- 
ple and illustration of spiritual death. Look at 
that young lady, just opening into womanhood. 
Amiability, sweetness, gentleness, sympathy, kind- 
ness, modesty, affection, decorum, and every 
womanly grace and excellence are but the definition 
of her name. In all that relates to nature, art, 
letters, and society, what vitality ! what emotion ! 
what warmth ! what earnestness ! what variety and 
glow of affections ! what an infinitude of objects 
court and command her regards and activities ! But 
speak to her of the evil of sin as committed against 
a holy God, and your words are a sound without a 
sense. Descant ever so eloquently on the offices 
and work of Christ, as Atoner, Redeemer, and 
Intercessor, as Prophet, Priest, and King; and you 
will be to her as one that sings a very pleasant song 
in an unknown tongue. As to Jewish eyes of old, 
so to hers the Saviour has no comeliness to excite 
desire, no beauty to awaken love. Paint, in colours 
the most vivid and touching, the holy attractions of 

5 



50 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

heaven and the dread horrors of perdition ; and she 
will listen to your discourse, in the one case without 
desire, and in the other, without alarm. Objects 
the most important, the most engaging, the most 
desirable, and the most tremendous in the universe, 
have no power to stir the depths of emotion, or to call 
forth the vital activities of the soul. Apply every 
test of spiritual life — the love of God, the compas- 
sion of Jesus, the grace of the Spirit, the sympathy 
of angels, the beauty of holiness, the hatefulness of 
sin, the bliss of heaven, and the pains of hell ; — all 
are equally powerless to melt or move the heart. 
Alas ! she is dead — " dead in trespasses and in 
sins." There is neither spiritual perception, nor 
spiritual sensibility, nor spiritual motion. A stupor 
of spiritual death has seized upon the soul, pervad- 
ing and paralyzing all its powers and susceptibili- 
ties. Before that dead soul can put forth the 
appropriate actings of a true spiritual life, it is 
indispensable that a change pass upon it ; a change 
so radical in its nature, and so complete in its ef- 
fects, that it may fitly be designated, as the Bible 
has actually designated it, as a resurrection, a re- 
creation, a new birth, a changing of stone into flesh. 
All this is confirmed and strikingly illustrated by 
an incident in the life of Wilberforce, who once 
took the great Pitt to hear Cecil preach. The 
sermon was a copious, clear, and most delightful 
exhibition of Christ's offices to his church. The 
soul of the Christian philanthropist was fed, 



NECESSITY OF REGENERATION. 51 

nourished, and strengthened by the precious truths, 
set forth with true evangelical unction. On com- 
ing out of the church he asked the first Minister of 
the Crown and the most brilliant orator in Europe, 
what he thought of the discourse ? His reply was 
remarkable, and at the same time painfully instruc- 
tive : " I did not understand one word of it from 
beginning to end." 

The necessity of regeneration is apparent from the 
fact that such a change is essential to a participa- 
tion in the holy activities and joys of heaven. 

This necessity, therefore, is founded in the very 
nature of things. Every creature, by an original 
law of its creation, must live in an element and act 
in a manner suited to its nature. But water is not 
more uncongenial to birds, nor air to fishes, than 
the holy society, the holy employments, and 
the holy pleasures of heaven would be to the 
unregenerate. Consequently, without a new 
heart and new spiritual tastes, we can no more 
enjoy the beatific vision of God, than a being 
formed for the dry land can live in the depths of 
the ocean. 

The necessity of the new hirth in order to salvation 
results from the holiness of God. 

Nothing that defileth or worketh abomination 
can enter into his presence. Evil shall not dwell 
with him, neither can he look upon iniquity. 



52 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

Righteousness and unrighteousness, light and dark- 
ness, purity and corruption, sin and holiness, Christ 
and Belial, the temple of God and idols, heaven and 
hell, are utterly irreconcilable. They are elements 
which can by no possibility meet and mingle. It 
results that, if God and sinners ever dwell together, 
either he must become unholy, and be like them ; 
or they must become holy, and be like him. There- 
fore, if God be immutable, the unregenerate cannot 
be saved ; and to expect salvation in the state of 
unregeneracy is as irrational as to expect that God 
will abdicate his throne, and cease to be God. If 
the one is impossible, so is the other. 

The necessity of regeneration appears in the mission 
and work of Jesus Christ. 

On what errand did Christ come into this world ? 
To destroy sin ; to conquer Satan ; to be the physi- 
cian of souls ; to redeem man from iniquity ; and to 
purify to himself a peculiar people. This was the 
intent of his doing and dying. And can it be sup- 
posed that he would have done and suffered so much, 
or that God would have exacted so painful an obe- 
dience from his Son, if men could have obtained 
salvation at a cheaper purchase, and entered heaven 
without repentance and a new heart ? Besides, if 
sinners can be saved without regeneration, all the 
great purposes for which Christ came into the world 
utterly fail of their accomplishment. In that case, 
sin is not destroyed, but rather befriended. 



NECESSITY" OF REGENERATION. DO 

* 
Satan is not conquered, but rather strengthened. 

The soul is not healed, but the plague is left in all 
its strength and virulence. Men are not redeemed 
from iniquity, but encouraged in it. There is no 
peculiar people, purified or otherwise ; since the evil 
and the good, the pure and the impure, shall meet 
and dwell together in one common heaven. From 
all which it would follow, that Christ is dead in 
vain ; that his mission, with all its bitter sorrows, 
was a needless and cruel imposition ; and that his 
whole glorious work is a failure and a nullity. What 
more horrible blasphemy could be uttered against a 
just and holy God ? What greater indignity could 
be offered to the compassionate and gracious Re- 
deemer ? 

The necessity of regeneration is plainly taught in 
the Bible. 

The testimony of Scripture, to this point, is full 
and clear. No reader of the Holy Book can fail 
to perceive that, if its authority be admitted, a rad- 
ical change must take place in every person in order 
to his being a real Christian. " That which is born 
of the flesh, is flesh," John iii. 6. "Adam . . . 
begat a son in his own likeness," Gen. v. 3 ; that 
is, possessing his own moral nature, which, after the 
fall, was corrupt and alienated from the life of God. 
This declaration undoubtedly refers, not to that 
particular son alone, but to all his posterity. Be 
lievers are described by the evangelist John, as 
5 * 



54: A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

" born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, 
nor of the will of man, but of God," John i. 12. 
To the Corinthians Paul says, " If any man be in 
Christ he is a new creature ; old things are passed 
away ; behold, all things are become new," 2 Cor. 
v. 17. Here both the necessity of the new birth 
is affirmed, and its nature summarily exhibited. 
How comprehensive are the terms of the proposi- 
tion ! Not here and there one, but any man, all 
men, who are in Christ, are new creatures. All 
Christians are new-born, and none but Christians 
can be saved. To such all things are become new. 
They have new views, new emotions, new purposes, 
new springs of action, a new life, a new work, a 
new master, a new inheritance, and a new home. 

The change of which we are speaking is called 
in Scripture a " new heart," a " new spirit," a " new 
mind," a "new birth," a "new creature." It is 
termed a "passing from darkness into light," and 
" from death to life." It is described as a " putting 
off the old man," and a "putting on the new." 
These expressions, so remarkably varied, have a 
pregnant meaning. They denote a mighty change. 
They signify that, in becoming Christians, we be- 
come very different persons, indeed, from what we 
were before. And this ought to be very seriously 
considered; for what a slight and superficial thing 
is that which passes for religion in general ! A 
fair profession, a few lifeless forms, a little outward 
decency, or at best some faint desires and feeble 



NECESSITY OF REGENERATION. 55 

efforts make up the whole of it. But the Scripture 
expressions cited above mean much more than this. 
They denote an inward change. They denote a 
great and radical change. They denote a Divine 
and glorious change. 

Moreover, the Scriptures everywhere insist upon 
the absolute necessity of this change. Our Lord 
himself, in his conversation with Nicodemus, re- 
corded in the third chapter of John's Gospel, has 
settled this point of the necessity of regeneration 
to every son and daughter of Adam. He has there 
laid it dow r n as the fundamental law of his kingdom, 
that a man must be born again in order to enter 
heaven. " Except a man be born again, he cannot 
see the kingdom of God." As a child is a new 
creature, having newly received a natural life, and 
been born into the material w T orld ; so a Christian 
is a new creature, having newly received a spiritual 
life, and been born into the kingdom of grace. 
How clear and strong are both the words and the 
sense ! No exceptions are made ; not ojie. The 
expressions are such as necessarily include the race, 
collectively and individually. No man, — such is 
the broad import of the terms used, — can be a dis- 
ciple of Christ and enter into his kingdom without 
this change. In full harmony with this declaration 
of our Saviour, is another by the same high author- 
ity : " Verily, I say unto you, except ye be con- 
verted, and become as little children, ye shall not 
enter into the kingdom of heaven," Matt, xviii. 3. 



56 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

The terms here employed are no less plain, no less 
significant, no less comprehensive, than those quoted 
from the conversation with Nicodemus. What fur- 
ther proof of the necessity of regeneration can be 
required, when we have such words from the lips 
of the Great Teacher himself? 

No doubt this doctrine appears strange to those 
who have studied the writings of philosophers more 
than those of prophets and apostles. No doubt it 
is mortifying to the pride and self-sufficiency of the 
carnal heart. No doubt it is an object of dislike 
to many, because it gives so humbling a view of our 
own character and state by nature. But, if the 
final appeal be to Holy Scripture, it is, beyond a 
peradventure, the true doctrine. It is confirmed 
with a " Thus saith the Lord." And, unless w T e 
are prepared to reject the whole Bible, we must 
yield our assent to it as God's truth. 

Reader, you must either be born again or perish ; 
you must either turn or die. When the God who 
made you tells you this, it is time to give heed to 
the solemn message. When the Saviour who died 
for you tells you this, it is time to listen to the 
warning voice. When the Spirit who new-creates 
you tells you this, it is time to hear as for your life. 
You are by nature dead in sin ; and your damna- 
tion is sealed, except you be born again. W T hoever 
tells you otherwise deceives you with a lie. You 
may put this truth out of your mind, but you can- 
not put it out of the Bible. There it stands, and 



NECESSITY OF REGENERATION. 57 

there it will stand to the end, the unalterable truth 
of God. Let so weighty a truth pierce your soul. 
Let it break your slumber. Let it awake your 
fears. Let it stir your anxieties. Let it move you 
to hear and obey the gracious w T ords which God 
himself has condescended to address to you, " Turn 
ye, turn ye, for why will ye die ?" 



58 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE AUTHOR OF REGENERATION. 

The sole author of regeneration, and of all 
spiritual life, is God the Holy Ghost. 

In the work of salvation, each person of the 
Trinity has his own peculiar province and function ; 
though all concur and co-operate in every part of 
it. Thus, redemption originated in the love of the 
Father and his eternal purpose of mercy to lost 
sinners ; it was merited and obtained by the obedi- 
ence and death of the Son in human nature ; and 
it is applied and made effective by the power of the 
Holy Spirit, who is the author of spiritual wisdom, 
faith, repentance, love, and holy living. As, on the 
one hand, the gracious purpose of the Father could 
not take effect except through the work of the Son, 
so, on the other, the work of the Son cannot be 
efficient without the application of the Spirit. But 
" the Spirit applieth to us the redemption purchased 
by Christ by working faith in us, and thereby 
uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling ;" that 
is, in our regeneration. Hence the Holy Ghost is 
called, in Scripture, the Spirit of knowledge, the 



THE AUTHOR OF REGENERATION. b\) 

Spirit of wisdom, the Spirit of power, and the 
Spirit of revelation in the knowledge of Christ. 
And love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, 
goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance, which 
are graces of the new creature, are declared to be 
the fruit of the Spirit. 

That our Catechism, in the answer just cited, sets 
forth truly the office-work of the Spirit in regene- 
ration, is clear from many Scripture testimonies. 
Our Lord's declaration to Nicodemus is explicit : 
" Except a man be born again, he cannot enter 
into the kingdom of heaven." No less unequivocal 
is the declaration of Paul that we " are saved by 
the washing of regeneration and renewing of the 
Holy Ghost/ ' The testimony of Peter is to the 
same effect : " Ye have purified your souls in obey- 
ing the truth through the Spirit.' ' The Great 
Teacher himself affirms: "It is the Spirit that 
quickeneth. ,, John calls regeneration a "bap- 
tism of the Spirit." Paul says that " the love of 
God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy 
Ghost." These passages are but a specimen of the 
Scripture testimony to the doctrine, that it is by the 
omnipotent energy of the Divine Spirit we are 
born again and introduced to the enjoyment of 
Christ and all his benefits. Therefore, whenever 
we find the inspired penman, as we often do, ascrib- 
ing regeneration to God without any special desig- 
nation of the Person, God the Holy Ghost is always 
to be understood as the efficient agent in that work. 



60 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

The necessity of the special and almighty power of 

the Holy Spirit in regeneration, is evident from the 

fact that the change wrought therein is a change 

from death unto life. 

The Scripture hath concluded all in the state of 
spiritual death (see Eph. ii. 1, and Col. ii. 13). On this 
point, we lay down the following fundamental prin- 
ciple. All life is of God. This is true of vegeta- 
ble life, of animal life, and of human life. It would 
be strange indeed, if spiritual life, the highest and 
sublimest species of being, formed an exception to 
this law. In point of fact, no power less than 
omnipotent can infuse life, where it is wanting. 

Here is a dead flower — its freshness faded, its 
odor gone, its vital energy extinct. Can chemistry 
or philosophy, with all their boasted power, restore 
its colour, or fragrance, or living juices to that 
withered and sapless thing? It cannot be pretended. 

Here is a lamb, upon which the relentless knife 
has just accomplished its work of death. Limb and 
muscle and tendon and bone and organ are there 
— all perfect as when it was disporting on the green 
meadow. Life only is wanting. Can human in- 
genuity or power give back the vital principle ? The 
galvanic current, insinuating its subtle energy into 
the muscular fibres, may cause the limbs to start 
with convulsive motions ; but not even an approach 
to life can be reached through its agency. 

See that beautiful infant ! It seems to repose in 



THE AUTHOR OF REGENERATION. 61 

a sweet and placid slumber. Approach its bedside. 
Imprint a kiss upon its marble brow. You start 
back with a shudder ! An icy coldness has sealed 
up the fountains of life ; and that lovely form lies 
stiff and clammy within the embrace of death. Can 
the skill or genius of man reanimate the dead, and 
rekindle the living spark within the fair tenement, 
whence it has fled ? Oh, could it once be so, coffers 
that contain millions should be emptied in return for 
such a boon. But no ! it cannot be. The fortune 
must be retained, and the stricken heart must bleed, 
till time and grace shall cicatrize the wound. 

To frame the world, to guide the stars, and to 
restore life to the dead flower, the dead lamb, or 
the dead child, are equally the issues of an almighty 
power. Is vegetable life, is animal life, is human 
life, a more precious thing than spiritual life ? 
There is no comparison. And if man must ac- 
knowledge his inability to produce these lower vitali- 
ties, how shall he pretend to the power of giving 
life to a dead soul, whether his own, or that of 
another ? It is a vain pretence, a visionary claim. 
No man can renew his own heart ; no man can re- 
new the hearts of others. All life is of God, from 
the life of an archangel to the life of a fly. 

The need of the almighty power of the Divine Spirit 
in regeneration is further apparent from the fact 
that the work is called in Scripture a creation. 

" If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, " 
G 



62 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

2 Cor. v. 17. " Neither circumcision availeth any- 
thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature/' 
Gal. vi. 15. " We are his workmanship, created in 
Christ Jesus unto good works," Eph. ii. 10. "That 
ye put on the new man, which after God is created 
in righteousness and true holiness," Eph. iv. 24. 
That the above passages relate to regeneration, 
will not be disputed. Nor can it any more be de- 
nied that they are intended to declare the power by 
which it is wrought in the soul. If this be so, one 
of two things must follow : either the metaphor is 
unhappily chosen, and gives an exaggerated view 
of the subject ; or the same power that called the 
Tvorld into being must be exerted to new create a 
human soul. We recur, on this head, to the ele- 
mentary principle that no creature can create. All 
the philosophers in the world cannot create an in- 
sect or an atom. They may change, refine, and 
variously modify things that are ; bnt by no power 
or skill which they possess can they give being to 
the least thing that is not. Much less can 'any 
power of man or nature give being to the most 
excellent of all creatures, the new and Divine 
principle, the spiritual and heavenly life, formed 
in the soul by regeneration. • To suppose such a 
thing would be derogatory to the Divine nature; 
it would be setting the earthly above the heavenly ; 
for that which creates must ever be more glorious 
than that which is created ; and he who builds 
the house is entitled to more honour than the house. 



THE AUTHOR OF REGENERATION. 63 

If we consider the thing to be changed, we must 
admit the necessity of the supernatural and al- 
mighty power of the Spirit in regeneration. 
This is the heart of a sinner ; concerning which 
it has been well said by Flavel, that it is no more 
by nature disposed to this work than the wood laid 
upon the altar by Elijah was disposed to take fire 
when he had poured so much w r ater on it as not 
only wet the wood, but filled up the trench about 
it. 

It is a dark heart ; so dark that He who, by an 
omnipotent fiat, caused the light to shine out of 
darkness, can alone pierce and scatter the dense 
folds of its spiritual ignorance. For midnight to 
pour the radiance of noonday upon the earth would 
not be a whit more wonderful than for the natural 
man to cure the blindness of his heart by his own 
power or skill. 

It is a selfish heart ; so selfish that all its desires, 
aims, and doings, centre in self. For the heart to 
renounce, deny, and break away from this beloved 
self, take God in Christ as its supreme happiness, 
and make his glory its chief end, requires a might 
as much above the powers of nature, as it would to 
cause the massive rocks to leave their fixed foun- 
dations and fly, like wandering meteors, through 
the heavens. 

It is a proud heart ; so proud that it naturally 
disdains and repudiates all righteousness but that 



64 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

which itself has wrought out ; it cannot brook to be 
dependent on the merit of another for acceptance 
with God. As well may we look to see a stone, by 
some power inherent in itself, rise from the earth 
and fix itself among the stars, as to see this proud 
heart, by any power or exertion of corrupt nature, 
take guilt and shame to itself, own itself empty of 
all goodness, and, in the sense of its utter naked- 
ness and desert of eternal damnation, go to the 
Saviour and beg to be covered with the robe of his 
righteousness, to be justified freely by his grace, 
and to be accepted in the Beloved. 

The intrinsic difficulty of th'e work is such that the 
omnipotent power of the Holy Grhost alone can 
overcome it. 

Regeneration conquers prejudices the most in- 
veterate, mortifies lusts the most imperious, changes 
habits the most deeply seated, implants a principle 
of holiness where everything was opposed to it, re- 
verses the whole bent and bias of the soul, and, by a 
powerfully attractive influence, draws it in a direc- 
tion altogether contrary to the stream and current 
of corrupt nature. It has been said with truth, 
that there is a greater distance between the terms 
sin and holiness, corruption and grace, than between 
those of something and nothing. In the creation 
of the material universe, there was, it is true, noth- 
ing out of which to frame it, but then there was 
nothing to oppose it ; but in regeneration, there is 



THE AUTHOR OF REGENERATION. 65 

not only nothing out of which to educe the new 
creation, but there is everything to oppose it. In 
the old creation, the conditions were no help and no 
hindrance ; in the new creation, the conditions are 
no help, but every hindrance. 

The exceeding difficulty of the work, and indeed 
the utter impossibility of accomplishing it by hu- 
man power, is set forth in the pregnant interroga- 
tory of the prophet Jeremiah, " Can the Ethiopian 
change his skin or the leopard his spots ?" If om- 
nipotence is required to whiten the dusky skin of 
the African, to erase the spots of the leopard, and 
to change the fierceness of the lion into the gentle- 
ness of the lamb, much more is such almighty power 
needed to slay the enmity of the sinner's heart, and 
to cause him to give up his darling lusts, to forsake 
the ways of sin, at once so sweet and profitable, to 
renounce his own best performances and excellences, 
to come naked and empty to Christ for a share in 
his righteousness, to forego his own carnal joys, and 
to delight in the law of God after the inward man. 
" The new birth," says an excellent old divine, " is 
a change of nature ; of a nature where there was 
as little of spiritual good, as there was of being in 
nothing before the creation. It is the change of a 
stone into flesh ; of a heart that, like a stone, has 
hardness and settledness of sinful parts, a strong 
resistance against any instrument, an incorporation 
of sin and lust with its very nature ; where the 
heart and sin, self and sin, are cordially onq and 
5* 



66 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

the same. None can change such a nature but the 
God of all grace. No man can change the nature 
of the meanest creature in the world. Now, to see 
a lump of vice become the model of virtue, and him 
that drank in iniquity like water to thirst after 
righteousness, to crucify his darling flesh, to be 
weary of the poison he loved and desire the purity 
he hated, speaks a supernatural grace, transcend- 
ently attractive and powerfully operative.' p 

The marked difference in the success of the gospel, 
under the same or similar circumstances, shozvs 
that the excellency of the poiver in regeneration is 
of Grod and not of man. 

Peter preached the gospel to the crowds gathered 
at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, and three 
thousand were converted ; Stephen, with no less 
pungency and power, preached the same gospel to 
the same people, in the same city of Jerusalem, and 
was buried beneath a shower of stones. In the one 
case, the hearers were "pricked in their hearts," 
and cried out, " Men and brethren, what shall we 
do ? " In the other, they were " cut to the heart," 
but gnashed upon the preacher with their teeth. 

When Paul preached at Athens, Dionysius, the 
Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, with 
a few others, believed and became Christians ; 
but the body of his hearers mocked and derided 
him. 

Under the preaching of the prophet Malachi, a 



THE AUTHOR OF REGENERATION. 67 

few had their hearts touched by grace, concerning 
whom it is said, " They feared the Lord and spake 
often one to another ;" but of the majority of the 
nation it is recorded that their words were " stout 
against the Lord," and they said, " It is a vain 
thing to serve God." 

The Master himself often visited Jerusalem, but 
he gained few disciples there ; he spent but two 
days at Sychar, yet many of the Samaritans in 
that city believed on him. He spent much time in 
Capernaum, and preached many sermons there ; a 
few were taken out of the mass, and set as jewels 
in the Redeemer's crown ; but the most repented 
not : in darkness he found them, and in darkness 
he left them. 

Athens was a city far more cultivated, refined, 
and moral than Corinth ; yet in the former, though 
the great apostle to the Gentiles preached with an 
eloquence and a power never surpassed, he gained 
but few converts ; while in the latter, though far 
less hopeful to human apprehension, he gathered a 
large and flourishing church. 

The two thieves upon the cross were surrounded 
by the same scene and subjected to the same ex- 
ternal influences : one of them prayed, " Lord, re- 
member me when thou comest into thy kingdom," 
and was that day with Jesus in Paradise ; the other 
joined in the jeers and mockeries of the murderous 
crowd, and, like Judas, we have reason to think, 
went unto his own place. 



68 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

How often in the history of God's grace is that 
Scripture fulfilled, " Two men shall be in the field, 
the one shall be taken and the other left ; two wo- 
men shall be grinding at the mill, the one shall be 
taken and the other left." 

Now in what way shall we account for all this, 
but upon the principle that " neither is he that 
planteth anything, nor he that watereth, but God 
that giveth the increase." When Christ does not 
accompany the word with the almighty power of 
his Spirit, the preacher speaks and strives but in 
vain ; it is like speaking to the winds and the wild 
waves of the sea. But when Christ rises from his 
throne and pours down his Spirit, then the weakest 
means are infinitely mighty. Then the gospel does 
not come in word only, but in demonstration of the 
Spirit and with power. Then, like the stone hurled 
from the sling of David, it slays the stoutest op- 
poser, and even giants in sin are brought to the 
dust. If the weapons of our warfare were mighty 
in themselves, they would at all times be equally 
successful ; but the event makes it manifest that 
they are mighty only through the might of omnipo- 
tence, and that that divine power is exerted in a 
way of discriminating, sovereign, and invincible 
grace. 

Thus far the argument on this head has been 
conducted mainly upon grounds of reason. But on 
a subject of this nature, the chief resort, the ulti- 
mate appeal, must be to the sacred record. " To 



THE AUTHOR OF REGENERATION. 69 

the law and the testimony, if they speak not ac- 
cording to this word, it is because there is no light 
in them. ,, 

If we take the Bible for our guide, and yield our faith 
to its authority, there cannot remain a doubt that 
Crod is the sole author of regeneration ; that there 
is an inward, almighty, and gloriously efficient 
poiver of the Holy Ghost exerted to produce the 
change indicated by that term. 

Clear and unequivocal to this effect is the testi- 
mony of our Lord in John iii. 5: "Except a man 
be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter 
into the kingdom of God." Much learned and 
rather unprofitable discussion has been expended 
upon the inquiry, what we are to understand by the 
term water in this passage. One interpreter takes 
it to mean our natural birth ; another, the obedience 
of Christ ; a third, baptism ; and so on. To enter 
into speculations of this nature is foreign to the 
present purpose. With Witsius, we reject all 
such views, and suppose rather that water is here 
to be taken as an emblem of the Spirit, as fire is in 
the passage where we are said to be baptized with 
the Holy Ghost and with fire. The meaning will 
then be, that in order to our entering into the kingdom 
of heaven, we must be born of the Spirit, whose 
office is to purify the soul, as that of water is to 
cleanse the body. Nothing . is more common with 
the sacred writers than to represent the Holy 



70 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

Spirit under the symbol of water. See a proof of 
this in Isaiah, xliv. 2 : " I will pour water upon him 
that is thirsty ; * * * I will pour my Spirit upon 
thy seed." The same truth is here expressed in 
two forms, the one figurative, the other literal ; the 
literal being introduced to explain the figurative. 
But whatever way the term water is interpreted here 
does not affect the main sense, which is plainly to 
this purport, that the sole author of the new birth, 
and of all spiritual life, is God the Holy Ghost. 

The same truth is taught, with equal clearness 
and emphasis, in those passages which speak of our 
being born from above, of our being born of God, 
of our being born not of blood, nor of the will of 
the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. In 
these Scriptures, the determining cause and efficient 
agency in our regeneration are wholly taken away 
from the creature and given to the almighty Cre- 
ator. 

In numerous places of holy writ, God distinctly 
claims regeneration as his own work. " The Lord 
thy God will circumcise thy heart, and the heart of 
thy seed, to love the Lord thy God, with all thy 
heart and with all thy soul," Deut. xxx. 6. "I 
will put my law in their inward parts, and write it 
in their hearts ; and I will be their God, and they 
shall be my people," Jer. xxxi. 33. " I will give 
them one heart and one way, that they may fear 
me for ever. . . I will put my fear in their hearts, 
and they shall not depart from me," Jer. xxxii. 



THE AUTHOR OF REGENERATION. 71 

39-40. " I will give them one heart, and I will 
put a new spirit within you, and I will take away 
the stony heart out of their flesh, that they may 
walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and 
do them," Ezek. xi. 19, 20. "A new heart also 
will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within 
you ; and I will take away the stony heart out of 
your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh," 
Ezek. xxxvi. 26. We need not multiply passages 
to this effect, though it would be easy to do so. Let 
these suffice. What is the plain instruction to be 
drawn from them ? Surely, not merely that God 
will aid us in the work of renewing our own hearts 
and converting ourselves. When God says, again 
and again, " I will do thus and so for you," it would 
be a frigid interpretation which would make it mean 
no more than, "I will assist you to do it." The 
heart, that is, our entire moral and sentient nature, 
the seat and principle of all spiritual exercises, is 
compared to a stone ; by which is signified its total 
unaptness for, and stubborn opposition to, all spirit- 
ual motions. Now this inaptitude and stubbornness, 
this impotence and enmity to God, this total inabil- 
ity to all good, God says that he will take away ; 
and not only so, but that he will give, in its place, 
a new heart and a new spirit, by virtue of which we 
shall be his people, and walk in his statutes, and 
keep his ordinances, and do them. He does not 
say that he will endeavour to do all this, that he 
will use means to do it, that he will help those who 



72 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

undertake the work for themselves ; but he says, 
absolutely and positively, that he himself will do it. 
So distinctly and emphatically does God challenge 
the work of regeneration as his own. 

Other Scriptures innumerable are to the same 
general purport. "No man can come to me," says 
the Saviour, " except the Father who has sent me 
draw him," John vi. 44; and again in vs. 65, "No 
man can come unto me, except it were given unto 
him of my Father." This strips the whole human 
race of all power to renew their own hearts. " No 
man can come unto me." Not an individual of the 
human family, whatever his natural qualifications 
or external advantages, however he may be disposed 
or prepared, whatever arguments or means may be 
used with him, whether wise and learned, or ignor- 
ant and illiterate — no man can of himself come to 
Christ, can believe on him, can renew his own heart. 
This must be given to him from above ; he must be 
powerfully drawn by a divine influence. The same 
thing is asserted, both negatively and positively, in 
Eph. ii. 8 : " By grace are ye saved through faith; 
and that not of yourselves ; it is the gift of God." 
The apostle here draws a contrast between our 
ability and the gift of God, and affirms that salva- 
tion has its source in the latter, to the exclusion of 
the former. And further, he informs us in verse 
10, how God bestows this gift upon us, viz., by 
creating us anew in Christ Jesus, as his own work- 
manship. 



THE AUTHOR OF REGENERATION. 73 

Illustrious is the testimony of the apostle in Phil, 
ii. 13 : "It is God that worketh in you both to will 
and to do of his good pleasure." 

A signal proof of the need of Divine power in 
regeneration we have in Jer. xvii. 14, and xxxix. 
13 : " Heal me, Lord, and I shall be healed ; save 
me, and I shall be saved ; turn me, and I shall be 
turned." Two things are declared in these Scrip- 
tures, as plainly as language can perform that office ; 
first, that God alone is the author of conversion ; 
secondly, that when he undertakes the work, it is 
effectually don-e. What is the plain instruction of 
this text ? We have a three-fold lesson here : first, 
that God, by his effectual working, gives the will to 
do good ; secondly, that, by a like efficient opera- 
tion, he imparts the ability to put that will into ex- 
ecution ; and thirdly, that in all this he acts as a 
sovereign, who giveth no account of his matters. 

Other Scriptures assure us that God "works in 
us that which is well pleasing in his sight ;" that he 
"begets us anew to a lively hope ;" and that he 
"fulfils in us the work of faith with power; — all 
bearing concurrent testimony to the doctrine, that 
there is an immediate and efficient divine operation 
upon the soul in the new birth. 

Most significant and instructive, in this connec- 
tion, is the parable of the dry bones in EzekieUs 
vision. Those bones were not only without life, but 
without any desire for life, or any power in them- 
selves to recover it. They lay motionless and dead 
7 



74 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

in the open valley, till the Sphit of God breathed 
upon them, and sent life and power and motion into 
them. So the sovereign and almighty power of 
the Holy Ghost calls us from the death of sin, and 
creates us anew in the divine image. He wakes us 
out of sleep. He softens our hard hearts. He 
convinces us of sin. He shows us our misery. He 
enlightens our darkness. He renews our perverted 
and rebellious will. He makes us willing in the 
day of his power. He gives us power to embrace 
and appropriate Christ as our Saviour. Thus are 
we enabled to discern spiritually, to feel spiritually, 
and to judge spiritually. Thus do we desire, choose, 
hope, and act as possessed of a new life, even the 
life of God infused into the soul by his regenerat- 
ing grace. 

God the Holy Ghost, then, is the sole author of 
spiritual life. But we must not thence infer that 
the soul of man is a mere lump of clay, lying wholly 
inert and passive under his hand. Figures drawn 
from natural objects, and used to illustrate spiritual 
truths may, if we are not careful to make the pro- 
per distinctions, lead us into pernicious error, by 
causing us to push the analogies too far, and to 
apply them to points where the likeness totally 
fails. The sluggishness and senselessness of matter 
cannot, in any absolute sense or under any circum- 
stances, be predicated of the human soul. Man is 
endowed with understanding, reason, thought, will, 
conscience, affections, and the power of choice ; at- 



THE AUTHOR OF REGENERATION. 75 

tributes entirely wanting in the things from which 
the figures are drawn. 

" The natural heart," says an able divine, " is 
indeed dead in sin, wholly inclined to evil, and can 
therefore bring forth no good thing. But the death 
of a spiritual, immortal, and ever-active soul, is as 
different from the death of the body, as spirit is 
different from matter. The dead body is wholly 
motionless and unconscious ; but the dead soul is 
willingly and intelligently active in wickedness. 
The«re is a will in the dead soul, and although that 
will is in bondage to Satan, it is still will, and it is 
in bondage because the heart loves sin. Hence, 
though our conversion is the work of the Holy 
Spirit, the sinner is commanded to ' turn unto God,' 
and he is condemned for not repenting, because by 
his impenitence he doth ' always resist the Holy 
Ghost,' and 4 will not come unto Christ that he 
might have life/ There is a difficulty here, it is 
admitted, but it is not a practical difficulty. Every 
sinner knows that he continues to sin voluntarily ; 
and every reader of the Scripture knows that, if he 
4 yield himself to God,' the Spirit will take posses- 
sion of his heart ; and every one who puts these 
two truths together must know that, if he be not 
converted, it is his own fault, because he has not 
only neglected striving to enter the strait gate, but 
has struggled against the Spirit lest he should be 
brought to enter. Dependence upon the grace of 
the Holy Ghost for a new life is no excuse or war™ 



76 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

rant for our idleness, but, on the contrary, rebukes 
it ; else there were no meaning in the command, 
i make you a new heart and a new spirit ;' or in 
the promise, ' they that seek shall find ;' or in the 
condemnation of them who have not ' believed on 
the name of the only begotten Son of God/ " 
(Bethune on the Fruit of the Spirit.) 

It has been much discussed whether the subjects 
of regeneration are active or passive at the moment 
when the change takes place. This question, like 
that which has been raised concerning the order of 
time in which faith and repentance spring up in the 
soul, is rather speculative and curious than practical 
and important. For as these two graces can never 
be separated, but must necessarily co-exist in the 
soul, though in the order of nature faith must be 
supposed to precede and work repentance; so, in 
regeneration, the soul must be conceived to be pas- 
sive at the instant of its occurrence, since men of 
themselves no more contribute to their spiritual 
than to their natural birth, yet in the very nature 
of things, the spiritual activities commence at the 
same point of time. No sooner is grace infused 
into the soul, than, as a necessary consequence, 
gracious affections and gracious actings begin to 
manifest themselves. Hence, I have always regarded 
as eminently sound and scriptural the ground taken 
by President Edwards on this point, in his Observa- 
tions concerning Efficacious Grace, viz., that in 
efficacious grace we are not merely passive, nor yet 



THE AUTHOR OF REGENERATION. 77 

does God do a part of the work, and we the rest. 
But God does all, and we do all. God produces all, 
and we act all ; for indeed the very things which 
God produces are our own actions, since, as the 
apostle teaches, he works in us to do. God is the 
fountain and author of our spiritual activities, while 
we ourselves are the proper actors. 

This explains and reconciles many passages of 
Holy Writ, which, on a superficial view, seem in- 
consistent and contradictory. The Scriptures, in 
numerous places, represent the same things as from 
God and from us. Thus God is said to sprinkle 
clean water upon us and cleanse us from all our 
filthiness ; and we are commanded to wash and 
cleanse ourselves. God is said to give us a new 
heart and a new spirit ; and we are commanded to 
make us a new heart and a new spirit. God is said 
to turn us ; and we are commanded to turn our- 
selves. God is said to heal our backslidings ; and 
we are commanded to return from our backslidings. 
God is said to circumcise our hearts ; and we are 
commanded to circumcise our own hearts. God is 
said to keep us from falling ; and we are commanded 
to take heed lest we fall. God is said to keep us 
from departing from him ; and we are commanded 
not to depart from his ways. God is said to con- 
firm us to the end ; and w r e are commanded to en- 
dure to the end. God is said to give repentance 
and faith ; and we are commanded to repent and 
believe. All this is agreeable to that clear and un- 
7* 



78 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

equivocal declaration of Paul, " God worketh in you 
both to will and to do ;" and that no less clear and 
unequivocal ascription by Isaiah of all our good 
works to God's efficiency, " Thou also hast wrought 
all our works in us." 

At this point it is proper, in passing, to distin- 
guish between regeneration and conversion. It is 
precisely the distinction, noticed in the preceding 
paragraph, between what God does and what men 
do in the commencement of the divine life. In re- 
generation, God infuses spiritual life into the soul ; 
in conversion, the sinner puts forth the appropriate 
actings of this new life. In regeneration, God 
draws ; in conversion, we run after him. In re- 
generation, a power is given ; in conversion, that 
power is exercised. In regeneration, the will is 
acted upon ; in conversion the will acts. Regenera- 
tion is a spiritual change ; conversion is a spiritual 
motion. Regeneration is a principle of activity 
imparted ; conversion is the action produced by 
that principle. Regeneration is grace bestowed ; 
conversion is grace used. Regeneration is the 
movement of God towards and upon the sinner ; 
conversion is the movement of the sinner towards 
God, consequent thereupon. 

The mode of the Spirit's operation on the human 
soul in regeneration is hid from the eyes of all 
living. This is one of the secret things which be- 
long to God, and is wrapped in profoundest mystery. 
So our Saviour has taught us in his conversation 



THE AUTHOR, OF REGENERATION. 79 

with Nicodemus, John iii. 8 : " The wind bloweth 
where it listeth, and thou nearest the sound thereof, 
but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it 
goeth ; so is every one that is born of the Spirit." 
Three things are intimated here, viz., the mystery, 
the reality, and the variety of the Spirit's work in 
regeneration. 

1. It is mysterious. There are innumerable phe- 
nomena, even in the natural world, which, as to 
their causes and processes, defy all explanation. 
Of these one of the most wonderful and unfathom- 
able is our natural birth. Who can declare its se- 
crets ? The Psalmist, in the contemplation of this 
marvel, could only exclaim, " I am fearfully and 
wonderfully made." But if the most sagacious are 
baffled in their inquiries into the origin and mode 
of our bodily life, who shall explore and unfold the 
origin and mode of our spiritual life? If an im- 
penetrable darkness shuts out all knowledge of the 
former, how much more of the latter ! 

2. The work of the Spirit in regeneration is none 
the less real because mysterious. Its mystery is no 
argument against its verity. " The application of 
the figure," says Bloomfield, " is that a man knows 
that his heart is more interested in religion, that 
he has a deeper insight and greater relish for spirit- 
ual truths ; and though he does not perceive the 
immediate influence from which this change pro- 
ceeded, yet the effects he knows by communing 
with his own heart. And they are of a kind which he 



80 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

must ascribe to the Author of all good, though he 
cannot trace the exact process by which that heav- 
enly agency was employed for that effect ; yet he 
does not the less believe its reality. " 

3. This operation of the Spirit in the new birth, 
though ever the same in its essence, is, like the 
blowing of the w T ind, endlessly varied in its circum- 
stances. We see the pliant willow bend gently be- 
fore the vernal zephyr ; we see the grass, the flowers, 
and the golden grain wave gently in the summer 
breeze. So gently, at times, does the Holy Spirit 
breathe upon a human soul ; so calm, so placid, so 
lovely, and so pure are the influences which invite 
to thought, to prayer, to God, to heaven. Again, 
we see the heavens gather blackness — the lightnings 
play, the thunder rolls, the tempest howls, the tor- 
nado sweeps over hill and vale, the roots of the 
sturdy oak are uptorn, and the massive and stately 
structure quivers in every timber. With such over- 
whelming power does the Spirit of God sometimes 
assault the soul of man ; and the stout-hearted sin- 
ner trembles under the influence of the truth, as 
the giant elm quivers beneath the wintry blast, or 
bends before the rushing whirlwind. He sees, as it 
were, the clouds of wrath gather ; he hears the 
thunder of justice; flashes from Sinai dart along 
his guilty path ; and he is prostrated before the 
power of God, like the forest before the sweeping 
and resistless tempest. But as in nature the storm 
passes by, the clouds are scattered, the winds are 



THE AUTHOR OF REGENERATION. 81 

hushed, the sun re-appears, and the earth smiles 
afresh in beauty and serenity ; so the soul, torn and 
prostrated by the terrors of the law, feels the sweet 
inflowing of gospel peace and joy, and all its agita- 
tions subside into a heavenly calm, when it hears 
the voice of pardon, and the hope of immortal glory 
first dawns upon its darkness. 

Reader, there are solemn lessons embodied for 
thee in this doctrine of the Spirit's agency in the 
work of regeneration. 

1. How wicked, foolish, and dangerous it is to re- 
sist the Holy Ghost ! To fight against the Spirit of 
God is to fight against the life of thy own soul, since 
upon his presence and power within thee thy spirit- 
ual life and all thy immortal hopes depend. "He 
that sinneth against God wrongeth his own soul." 

2. How much need hast thou to offer the prayer 
of the Psalmist, " Take not thy Holy Spirit from 
me!" That prayer has a significance, of which 
most men have but a very inadequate conception. 
When God takes away his Holy Spirit from a man 
finally and for ever, when he says of any human 
being, "My Spirit shall no longer strive with him," 
" Ichabod " may be written upon his whole being. 
The glory is departed. All his hopes for eternity 
are gone. The light of life is extinguished. His 
damnation is sealed. There can remain, to such an 
one, naught but a fearful looking for of "judgment 
and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adver- 
saries." 



82 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

3. Take courage from the Divine testimony that 
God is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to them 
that ask him, than parents are to give good things 
to their children. What a sweet, comforting, re- 
assuring similitude ! How willing is the tender 
mother, how ready the affectionate father, to bestow 
even the most precious gifts upon a beloved child ! 
But their readiness to impart earthly benefits is sur- 
passed by that of our heavenly Father to impart a 
gift more precious than earth contains ; a gift, such 
as heaven itself has no other equal or similar; the 
gift of the Holy Ghost in his renewing, sanc- 
tifying, and saving power. Reader, ask even that 
gift, in the name of Christ, feeling thy need of it, 
and thou shalt receive it, and with it, as its fruit 
and issue, eternal life. 



THE INSTRUMENT OF REGENERATION. 83 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE INSTRUMENT OF REGENERATION. 

Regeneration is wrought instrumentally hy the word 
of G-od. 

The reading and preaching of the word is the 
principal means appointed for bringing men to 
Christ, and so of converting and saving their souls. 
This is well expressed in the shorter Catechism, 
thus : " The Spirit of God maketh the reading, but 
especially the preaching of the word, a means of 
convincing and converting sinners, and of building 
them up in holiness and comfort, through faith unto 
salvation.' ' 

The power of the word in convincing, enlightening, 
and renewing men, is distinctly, as well as repeat- 
edly, declared in the sacred record. 

The great commission to the ambassadors of 
Christ is, " Go ye into all the world, and preach the 
gospel to every creature ;" and the promise annexed, 
" he that believeth shall be saved, " shows the de- 
sign of the gospel to be the salvation of those who 



84 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

hear it. Accordingly, the apostle affirms : " Faith 
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of 
God." To the same effect he speaks : 2 Cor. v. 20: 
"Now, then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as 
though God did beseech you by us (i. e. in our 
preaching of the gospel) ; we pray you in Christ's 
stead, be ye reconciled to God." 

Paul, in 1 Cor. iv. 15, declares himself to be the 
spiritual father of the Christians at Corinth, having, 
as he says, " begotten them through the gospel." 
Here the gospel — the word preached — is, unequivo- 
cally, represented as the instrument of their spirit- 
ual birth, that is, of their regeneration. 

u The weapons of our warfare," says Paul, 
(meaning the truths of the gospel,) " are not car- 
nal, but mighty through God to the pulling down 
of strongholds ; casting down imaginations and 
every high thing which exalteth itself against the 
knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every 
thought to the obedience of Christ." This is a 
graphic description of a genuine change of heart ; 
and, while the honour of the efficient agency in 
the work is distinctly claimed by God, the in- 
strumental agency is no less clearly ascribed to 
his word. 

To the same effect, but still more emphatically, 
the same apostle says, in Heb. iv. 12: " The word 
of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than 
any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing 
asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and 



THE INSTRUMENT OF REGENERATION. 85 

marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and in- 
tents of the heart." No heart is so hard, no con- 
science so seared, but this weapon can pierce it 
through and through. 

That the means employed by the Divine Spirit 
in regenerating dead souls is the word of God, is 
still further evident from 1 Pet. i. 23, where we 
are said to be " born again, not of corruptible seed, 
but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which 
liveth and abideth for ever." The natural birth 
and the spiritual birth of men are here compared 
in their causes and effects. The instrumental cause 
of the former is ordinary generation ; the instru- 
mental cause of the latter is the word of God. The 
life produced by the one is corruptible and mortal ; 
the life produced by the other is incorruptible and 
immortal, like the divine word of which it is begot- 
ten, and which, the apostle tells us, liveth and 
abideth for ever. The leading thought in the mind 
of the apostle, the great lesson he would convey, 
is the true place and agency of the word in regen- 
eration, viz : that of a means or instrument. 

No less clear and decisive is the testimony of 
James : u Of his own will begat he us, by the word 
of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of 
his creatures." Three things are taught in this 
passage : 1. That the original and source of the 
new birth is in the sovereign will of God. 2. That 
the means of this good work is the word of truth, 
the gospel of the Son of God. 3. That the design 



86 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

of this gracious renovation is, that we may be God's 
portion and treasure, consecrated to him, even as 
the first fruits were under the law. 

David bears witness to the same truth, in a glow 
of holy exultation over the living and quickening 
power of the divine word : " The law of the Lord 
is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the 
Lord is sure, making wise the simple ; the statutes 
of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart ; the 
commandment of the Lord is pure, enlighten- 
ing the eyes," Ps. xix. 7, 8. The connection in 
which this passage stands, is instructive. The 
former part of the psalm is a magnificent and glow- 
ing description of the visible heavens. Wrapped 
in the contemplation of the glorious power and wis- 
dom of God, as displayed in those worlds of light 
hung out in the firmament above him, the writer 
pours forth a strain of sublimities unsurpassed 
in the whole range of descriptive poetry. He is 
charmed with the beauty of the stupendous and 
dazzling scene ; he is awed by its sublimity ; 
he draws instruction from the majestic movement 
of those starry worlds ; and with the eloquence of 
inspired genius, he commends to all the children of 
mortality the lucid lessons they convey. But sud- 
denly he arrests himself amid the rush and glow of 
his lofty imagination; he descends from his advent- 
urous flight amid suns and stars ; he comes to read 
a better lesson in a better volume. " The law of 
the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." He found 



THE INSTRUMENT OF REGENERATION. 87 

sublime instruction in the works of God ; but in 
his word alone he found the lesson of perfection. 
" The law of the Lord converts the soul." Nature 
cannot do this. Philosophy cannot do it. Regene- 
ration never yet came from any influences of the 
one, or any speculations of the other. Man needs 
the truth found only in the Bible to convert him 
to God ; he must have that truth, or perish in his 
unregeneracy and sin. 

With this didactic statement of the doctrine accords 
the whole history of God's grace. 

Let me call the reader's attention to a single one 
of this class of proofs, — the record contained in 
Acts ii. 37 : " When they heard this (Peter's ser- 
mon on the day of Pentecost, a plain and pungent 
proclamation of the gospel), they were pricked in 
the heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of 
the apostles, ' Men and brethren, what shall we 
do V ' Three thousand were converted as the fruit 
of that sermon in one day ; and how many more 
afterwards, we have no means of knowing. " The 
incorruptible seed of the word," being quickened 
by the Holy Spirit, produced its designed and ap- 
propriate fruit. 

The cry uttered by those thousands on the day 
of Pentecost has been repeated by unnumbered 
millions since ; by men of every age, of every clime, 
of every colour, of every condition. The honourable 
and the ignoble, the renowned and the obscure, the 



88 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

learned and the ignorant, the rich and the poor, the 
wise and the foolish, the monarch and the slave — 
have all in turn felt the soul-piercing, soul-subduing, 
soul-restoring power of gospel truth, as read on the 
printed page, or heard from the living voice. 

The word of Grod, ivhich the Holy Spirit thus em- 
ploys in converting men, is comprised in two great 
departments, called the law and the gospel. 

Each of these has its appointed and appropriate 
function in the work. 

The law flashes conviction into the sinner's con- 
science. It shows him his guilt and condemnation. 
It reveals to him his danger. It lays open to his 
view the deformity and misery of his natural life. 
Like a hammer it breaks in pieces his false peace. 
Like a sword, it slays all his self-righteous hopes. 
It drives him from his refuses of lies. It convinces 
him of his need of a justifying righteousness, and 
of his inability to obtain such a righteousness by 
his own works. And it awakens in him an earnest 
desire to be delivered from w T hat he now sees and 
feels to be a degrading and miserable bondage. 

When the law has thus accomplished its work of 
conviction, the gospel comes to him with its procla- 
mation of mercy. Its office is to heal the wounds 
of sin, and bring spiritual health to the soul. It 
exhibits Christ as the surety of all those who be- 
lieve in him. It makes known his willingness to 
save, and the fulness and suitableness of his merit 



THE INSTRUMENT OF REGENERATION. 89 

and grace. It freely offers his salvation to all who 
will accept it on the terms of repentance and faith, 
to be followed by the fruits of holy living. It 
shows the sinner, at the same time, the excellence 
of that spiritual life, of which Christ is at once the 
author, the model, and the reward. It presses him, 
by the most powerful motives and the most persua- 
sive exhortations, to deny all carnal appetites and 
give himself up to be new moulded and formed by 
the Spirit of God. 

Thus, by the united operation of the law and the 
gospel, wielded by the almighty power of the 
Divine Spirit, is the conscience roused, the mind en- 
lightened, the will subdued, the affections rectified, 
true penitence awakened, hatred of sin begotten, 
the heart renewed, and all the graces of the Spirit 
wrought in the soul and made to abound in the 
life. 

Such, according to the clear teaching of God's 
word, is the truth as it is in Jesus. 

But it is to he carefully noted, and never forgotten, 
that the word of God is only the instrumental, and 
not at all the efficient cause of regeneration. 

If the truth were sufficient of itself, all who hear 
might be expected to receive and obey it ; nay, they 
certainly would receive and obey it ; for whatever 
works naturally, works necessarily ; as leaven, for 
example, always permeates and enlivens dough 
when deposited in it. If, therefore, the converting 



90 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

power of the word were inherent in it, it would in- 
fallibly convert all to whom it comes, unless we 
suppose some miracle to supervene and prevent it. 
It is the Spirit that quickens. Separated from the 
efficient power of the Spirit, the word can accom- 
plish nothing. The word, says an inspired penman, 
is the sword of the Spirit. Now, as a sword must 
be wielded by a strong arm to accomplish any use- 
ful purpose, so must the word be wielded by the 
Spirit to effect the conversion of men. It has been 
said that if men were as eloquent as the Holy 
Ghost, they could regenerate sinners as well as he ; 
a proposition w T hich implies that the change wrought 
in regeneration is produced wholly by the power of 
moral suasion. According to this view, men are 
converted in the same way they are induced to en- 
gage in any worldly enterprise — by the mere force 
of light and argument ; a theory as dangerous as it 
is unscriptural, as destructive to the souls of men as 
it is derogatory to the power and grace of God. 
The trumpet gives no sound, till the breath of a 
man is breathed into it ; the mantle of Elijah parted 
not the waters of Jordan, till the Lord God of 
Elijah gave it power to that end; the wheels of 
Ezekiel moved not, till the Spirit moved them ; in 
like manner, the word of God has no efficiency ex- 
cept what it derives from the Spirit of God, work- 
ing in and by it. That radical change of the mind, 
the will, the affections, and the life, in which the 
new birth consists, is not wrought in the soul effici- 



THE INSTRUMENT OF REGENERATION. 91 

ently by the power of the truth, however clearly 
seen or strongly felt, but by the immediate, sover- 
eign, and almighty power of God the Holy Ghost. 

Nevertheless truth, the truth as it in Jesus, is the 
means chosen and appointed of God for the regen- 
eration of men. Now, on the one hand, God has 
proclaimed and diifused his truth among men ; and 
thus He is using the means of regeneration. On 
the other hand, some unregenerate men are, and all 
ought to be, in different ways, directing their minds 
to the truth of God ; and thus they are, or should 
be, using the means of regeneration. It is essential 
to a just view of this subject, that we distinguish 
between the means of regeneration, as used by God 
and by the unregenerate themselves. 

God employs these means with entire sincerity 
and in a great variety of forms. He instructs, 
admonishes, warns, invites, persuades, allures, and 
pleads with men, with unutterable tenderness and 
solemnity. His language is, " Oh, that they were 
wise." " As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no 
pleasure in the death of the wicked." " Come now, 
and let us reason together." " How shall I give 
thee up, Ephraim ?" " Whosoever will, let him take 
of the water of life freely." It is thus that God, 
with compassionate urgency, uses the means of 
regeneration with unregenerate men. 

What remains, then, but that the unregenerate 
themselves should respond to this benevolent con- 
cern and importunity of God by a sincere and dili- 



92 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

gent use of the agencies appointed of God for the 
renewing and saving of their souls ? For, surely, 
if fit agencies have been instituted by God, men are 
bound, by every obligation of gratitude and every 
motive of personal well-being, to make such use of 
them as may answer the end of their institution ; 
otherwise, it is of little moment, so far as they are 
concerned, whether these means have been appointed 
or not. 

The means of regeneration are all comprised un- 
der the general designation of the revealed truth 
of God. But the application of this inspired truth 
is manifold. The forms, under which the one great 
instrumentality may be used, are many and various. 
The chief of these are the reading of God's word ; 
attendance upon the instruction and worship of the 
sanctuary ; the sanctification of the Sabbath ; the 
religious services of the family ; and prayer — pub- 
lic, social, and private. Now, it is unquestionably 
the duty of unconverted men to make use of all 
these instrumentalities. It were as well to be with- 
out the Bible, if men do not read it. It were as 
well to be without the ministry of reconciliation, 
if men do not attend upon it. It were as well to 
be without the Sabbath, if men do not observe it. 
It were as well to be without household devotions, 
if it is no harm to disregard and neglect such ex- 
ercises. It were as well to be without the privilege 
of prayer, if men may, with innocence, refuse to 
draw nigh to God. 



THE INSTRUMENT OF REGENERATION. 93 

I repeat then, that unconverted men are bound 
to use all these agencies diligently, faithfully, and 
perseveringly. No inherent and saving efficacy is 
claimed for the use of means. But it is claimed 
that the tendency of such use is to enlighten the 
understanding : to impress the conscience ; to con- 
vince of sin ; to awaken a salutary anxiety ; to pro- 
duce a reverence for God and dread of his anger ; 
to show the sinner the hardness, stubbornness, and 
obstinacy of his own heart ; to exhibit their own 
want of intrinsic efficacy ; and to bring home the 
conviction that some higher power is needed in or- 
der to a genuine work of regeneration, even the 
omnipotence of the Holy Spirit. 

While it is undoubtedly true that regeneration is 
very far from being a uniform consequence of means, 
it is no less true that means are the ordinary an- 
tecedent of regeneration. There can be no hesita- 
tion in affirming that those who use the means are 
more likely to be saved than those who do not. 
The probability here is all on one side of the ques- 
tion. To deny this would be to impeach the wis- 
dom of God in appointing means. Men may be 
lost, who use the means of regeneration; but they 
must be lost, in the total neglect of them. Eternal 
life may not crown the use of means, since they 
may be used in a wrong way, from wrong motives, 
and to a wrong end ; but eternal death is the cer- 
tain issue to those who persistently neglect them. 
The common sense and common sentiment of man- 



94 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

kind affirm this view. When we see persons anx- 
ious about their souls, when we behold them diligent 
in the study of the Bible, in attendance upon the 
sanctuary, in prayer, in seeking the society and con- 
verse of the godly, and in other exercises of re- 
ligion, we are filled with hope concerning them. 
But when the reverse of all this is seen in them, 
when they appear indifferent and hardened, and 
live in the neglect of all the ordinary means of 
grace, our minds are filled with anxious forebodings 
in reference to their eternal state. 

Yet I must not leave this subject just here. To 
stop at this point would be to "daub with untem- 
pered mortar," and to "heal the hurt of the daughter 
of my people slightly. ' ' A wrong and, in the issue, a 
fatal use may be made of this doctrine. It may be per- 
verted into an occasion of self-righteous pride and 
dangerous delay. Unconverted men, who have 
been awakened to some concern about their souls, 
and stirred up to some degree of diligence in the use 
of means, may be flattered by it into the delusion 
that they are doing well enough, and have only to 
persevere in their present course to secure salvation. 
When men cannot satisfy their consciences in a to- 
tal neglect of religion, they are prone to have re- 
course to something short of it. This refuge is, 
not seldom, the means of grace ; but it is " a refuge 
of lies." To use means and trust in such use is 
certain death to the soul. This is to make a Christ 
of them. Therefore let me say to all unregen- 



THE INSTRUMENT OF REGENERATION. 95 

erate persons, and in so saying I do but reflect and 
repeat the plain teaching of the word of God, that 
your first and instant duty is to go to Christ, to be- 
lieve on him, to submit to his government, and to 
enter into his service. As long as you reject Christ, 
it matters not how great your anxiety is, nor how 
diligent you may be in using means. You are still 
an enemy of God, and under his wrath and curse. 
There is no certainty that you will ever obtain 
mercy. God is under no obligation to show you 
mercy. Nor will he ever do so, while you stay 
away from Christ, for all your fasts and prayers 
and tears and cries. Nay, your conduct is especially 
provoking to God in that, despite your convictions, 
your alarm, and your anxiety, you still stand it out 
against Christ, and will not accept the offered Sa- 
viour, though clearly seeing that without him you 
must perish. Therefore, the only direction I have 
to give you is : " Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ." 
When the Scripture says to you, " Behold the Lamb 
of God," meet that offer promptly, fully, cordially ; 
trust your soul and all the high interests of your 
immortality into the hands of this Saviour ; put 
your hope of eternal life just where God puts it, 
in the merits and mediation of his Son ; do all this 
with that simple confidence which a child can feel 
as well as an archangel ; and that moment you are 
a Christian, a regenerated, pardoned, justified, and 
saved man or woman. That is the gospel plan of 
salvation in its essence and vitality. All else is a 



90 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

delusion and a falsehood. All else is but like the 
apples of Sodom, fair to the sight, but dust and ashes 
to the touch. All else will leave you at last to 
make your bed in hell, and to lie down amid ever- 
lasting burnings. 



FRUITS AND EVIDENCES OF REGENERATION. 97 



CHAPTER VII. 

FRUITS AND EVIDENCES OF REGENERATION. 

Regeneration produces, in those who are the 
subjects of it, marked and visible fruits ; which 
fruits constitute so many tokens and evidences of 
the believer's personal experience of the happy- 
change. 

In 2 Cor. v. 17, the change which takes place in 
passing from the state of nature to the state of 
grace is set forth, as to its effects, in the following 
terms : " If any man be in Christ, he is a new crea- 
ture ; old things are passed away ; behold, all things 
are become new." This description is brief, but 
clear and emphatic. It is a change equivalent to 
a new creation, since it is called by that name. This 
expression, however, must be limited by the nature 
of the subject. The change is a moral one. The 
properties and powers of the soul are not altered ; 
these remain as they were. The change is in the 
state and qualities of the soul ; and here the altera- 
tion is radical, thorough, complete, all-pervading. 
This change takes place, not merely in the aban- 
doned, debased, and notorious offender, but even in 
9 



98 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

men the most moral, the most amiable, and the most 
exemplary in all the civil and social relations of 
life. 

And here we must descend to some detail, and in 
doing so we will notice the following particulars. 
The truly regenerate have new views and feelings 
with respect to God, Christ, ordinances, sin, holiness, 
the Bible, themselves, Christians, sinners, the world, 
time, and eternity ; and, besides these internal fruits 
of regeneration, which evidence themselves to the 
renewed man's own consciousness, there will be an 
outward reformation, a new manner of life, which 
will be manifest to his fellow-men. 

The regenerated mans apprehensions of God and 
emotions towards him are different from what they 
were before, 

lie regards God as a real being more than he did. 
His existence, perfections, and presence are some- 
thing more to him than a name. Before, he seldom 
thought of God, and when he did, the thought was 
painful, and therefore banished as speedily as possi- 
ble; now God is seldom out of his thoughts, and he 
thinks of him with delight. He sees God in his works, 
and enjoys him in his gifts. The air, the light, the 
genial warmth of the sun, the birds, the flowers, food, 
raiment, shelter, friends — all the bounties of pro- 
vidence are to him what God makes them. God 
himself is in these enjoyments ; and it is because 
the divine goodness is tasted in them that they are 



FRUITS AND EVIDENCES OF REGENERATION. 99 

so precious to him. He looks up to God, he con- 
fides in God, he loves God as a Father. He chooses 
God as the portion of his soul. He seeks and 
finds his highest happiness in communion with God. 
How bright, how amiable, how dear do the divine 
perfections appear to him ! Especially the divine 
goodness and love, how sweet and ravishing the 
view he is, sometimes, at least, permitted to take 
of them ! 

The new man has new views of Christ and new 
exercises towards him. 

" To them that believe he is precious." Before, 
Christ was without form or comeliness ; there was 
no beauty in him to awaken desire. Now, he is 
the chief among ten thousand, altogether lovely, the 
rose of Sharon, the lily of the valley. The beauty 
of his person, the beauty of his character, the beauty 
of his government, the beauty of his redemption, 
the preciousness of his blood, in a word, his entire 
suitableness to the needs of a sinner, are seen and 
realized as they never were before. Christ is the 
fountain in which the Christian is continually 
washing his guilty soul from the stains of sin ; 
Christ is the rock continually giving out living 
water, of which the Christian drinks and is refreshed ; 
Christ is the treasury of grace, from which the 
Christian draws in every time of his necessity. And 
there are times when all language is too feeble to 
express the strength of his gratitude, too cold to 



100 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

breathe out the warmth of his affection to the be- 
loved of his soul. 

To the soul that has been born from above, divine 
ordinances have a value and a relish, which they 
never had before. 

Formerly they were a burden, now they are his 
joy. Before conversion the Sabbath was clothed 
in gloom, now it is the brightest day of the seven. 
He feels as the holy Psalmist did : " How amia- 
ble are thy tabernacles, Lord of hosts !" The 
songs of Zion, how pleasant ! the prayers, how 
solemn ! the doctrine, how refreshing ! the sacra- 
ments, what wells of salvation ! The breath of 
prayer is sweet. " Behold, he prayed/' was the 
first token of the new birth in Paul. A prayerless 
Christian is a solecism in language, a contradiction 
in terms, an utter impossibility. The renewed soul 
delights to draw near to God, to enter within the 
veil, to lie down at the feet of Jesus, and to pour 
its groans and its tears into his ear and his heart. 

The new birth is accompanied with new views of sin. 

Formerly sin was loved, cherished, and delighted 
in ; rolled as a sweet morsel under the tongue. 
There was little sense of sin, little concern about it, 
little dread of committing it, little sorrow for it after 
it had been committed. The guilt of innumerable 
sins lay upon the soul with no more than a feather's 
weight. But now what a change ! What discoveries 



FRUITS AND EVIDENCES OF REGENERATION. 101 

the new-born soul has of the exceeding sinfulness 
of sin. It is seen to be an evil and a bitter thing, 
a filthy and abominable thing, an awfully dan- 
gerous thing. It is felt to be a heavy burden, a load 
under which the Redeemer, though it was not his 
own, and only imputed to him, sunk in death. The 
regenerated soul looks at sin in the glass of the 
cross. Sin, he says, crucified my Lord, and shall 
not I crucify it ? Thus he meditates revenge 
against it, a holy revenge ; such a revenge as, in 
the words of good Matthew Henry, " will be no 
breach of the law of charity. ,, 

The new-born soul has new thoughts and exercises in 
respect to holiness. 

Before a saving change had been experienced, 
holiness was distasteful and repulsive. A holy God, 
a holy Sabbath, a holy law, a holy walk, a holy 
heaven even, with its holy associations of saints 
and angels, kindled no longings, excited no com- 
placent or pleasing emotions. But now holiness is 
the soul's most congenial element. It delights in holy 
employments, holy society, holy conversation, holy 
meditation, holy worship, holy pleasures, holy living, 
and, above all, in the anticipation of a holy heaven, 
of which a holy Saviour is the central attraction. 

Regeneration is attended with new views of truth, as 
contained in the Bible. 

Once there was no relish for the word of God, no 
9 * 



102 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

delight in it. If read at all, it was read as a duty 
and a task, without self-application, without growth 
in true spiritual knowledge. Other books were 
preferred to the Bible ; other truth was more relished 
than divine truth. God's word was a sapless, life- 
less, tasteless thing. But how changed is all this 
when the man is renewed ! Now the Bible is 
precious. David has well expressed the feeling 
of such an one towards the divine word, when he 
pronounces it " sweeter than honey and the honey- 
comb. " He delights in it. He has appetite for it. 
He has spiritual understanding of it. He has 
growth from it. He has security from it ; it is the 
shield with which he wards off the fiery darts of 
the adversary. In fine, he rejoices in it as one that 
findeth great spoil. 

The new man has new judgments concerning him- 
self. 

He is no longer his own centre. He no longer 
claims any property in himself, nor assumes to be 
master of his own actions. He looks upon himself 
as belonging to God, and as bound to make it the 
great employment of his whole life to serve him, to 
advance his glory, to root out sinful habits, and to 
abound in holy living. A converted sinner often 
stands astonished at his former conduct. He wonders 
at his former boldness in sin. He trembles at the 
remembrance of his former state. And to think 
what a change has been wrought in him, excites the 



FRUITS AND EVIDENCES OF REGENERATION. 103 

liveliest gratitude to God for the riches of his 
abundant grace. 

The man who has been created anew in Christ Jesus 
has neiv feelings towards Christians. 

The image of Christ in them makes them dear to 
him. " By this shall all men know that ye are my 
disciples, if ye have love one to another. ,, This is 
Christ's own mark of discipleship. Every one that 
loveth is born of God. The Psalmist assures us 
that all his delight was in the saints, the excellent 
of the earth. The joy of Christian communion is 
a joy precious to the Christian's heart in propor- 
tion to the liveliness and vigour of divine grace in 
his own soul. 

Sinners are regarded by the regenerate with emotions 
never before felt towards them. 

Compassion to sinners was a main feature in the 
character of Christ. This brought him from his 
throne. This clothed him in human flesh. This 
made him weep over Jerusalem. This bowed his 
head in death. This makes him wait upon sinners, 
knocking at the door of their hearts, till his locks 
are wet with the drops of the night. All Christ's 
people are like him. The same spirit dwells in 
them. The same heart throbs in their breast. 
While the wicked ways of sinners are abhorred, 
compassion, pity, tenderness, and love are felt 
towards their souls. Tears are wept over them in 



104 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

secret. Earnest prayers ascend for their conversion. 
Words of solemn warning and tender entreaty are 
addressed to them. In short, the feeling of the 
renewed soul towards all who are out of Christ is, 
" 0, taste and see that the Lord is good." 

The renewed mans estimate of the world is different 
from what it was before his conversion. 

Then the world was all smiles and roses. There 
was fascination in its money, fascination in its ap- 
plause, fascination in its honours, fascination in its 
beauty, fascination in its gaieties, and fascination 
in its pleasures. It seemed a very paradise of 
sweets. How ardently the heart loved it ! How 
eagerly the hands pursued it ! How entirely the 
soul was engrossed by it ! But now the charm is 
broken. Its false but dazzling colours are dashed 
out. Gold, fame, rank, power, beauty, and plea- 
sure are looked upon as deceitful and fugitive goods. 
Great prosperity and great temptations are now 
linked together in his thoughts. Genius, learning, 
wealth, and station, no longer form the balances in 
which he weighs men ; but moral qualities have 
become the standard of his judgments. " A Chris- 
tian in a cottage appears more amiable than a 
blasphemer in a palace." 

The converted man estimates time differently from 
what he ever did before. 

There is nothing more precious than time ; and 



FRUITS AND EVIDENCES OF REGENERATION. 105 

yet there is nothing of which unconverted men are 
more careless or more prodigal. Like silver in the 
days of Solomon, it is "nothing accounted of' by 
them. They spend it in idleness, in revelling, 
in gathering sordid dust, in foolish jesting, in envi- 
ous detraction or idle gossip, in the silly chase of 
fame, or honour, or pleasure. They talk as if they 
had a great deal more than they needed or knew 
what to clo with ; they contrive ingenious methods 
of wasting and consuming it ; they even speak of 
" killing time," as if it were an enemy to be put 
out of the way. Indeed, if men squandered money 
as they squander time, they would be thought fit 
subjects for the madhouse. But when a man is 
converted, what a different estimate does he put on 
time ! Now it seems to him, as it truly is, the most 
valuable of all treasures, infinitely more precious 
than gold or rubies, because a happy or a miserable 
eternity depends upon the good or ill use he makes 
of it. The Master's estimate of time is expressed 
in the solemn declaration : " I must work the w r ork 
of him that sent me, while it is day ; the night 
cometh." So does every true believer look at 
time. 

The regenerate person has new impressions and neiv 
judgments of things unseen and eternal. 

Before he was born again, the vanities of time 
filled his thoughts, engaged his affections, engrossed 
his pursuits. The world and the things of the 



106 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

world were all in a-11 to him. Eternity seldom 
crossed his mind, and when it did, the thought was 
quickly shaken off as an unwelcome intruder. But 
now the world of sense sinks, and the world of 
spirits rises in his esteem. Death, judgment, and 
eternity, with their endless awards of weal or woe, 
are frequently and strongly in his thoughts. They 
no longer appear to him as idle tales, in which he 
has little or no concern, but as living and stupen- 
dous realities, in which he is vitally, essentially, 
profoundly interested. Eternity flashes a light into 
his soul, which reveals the hideous deformity of sin, 
corrects the false representations of sense, and 
shows him how baseless are the claims of earthly 
gratification. Man's grand concern is with his 
eternal state. It is not this moment of mortal life, 
it is not this first brief stage of his existence, it is 
not this vision of an hour, that should engage his 
thoughts, command his affections, and call into 
vital and vigorous action the energies of his soul. 
No ! it is what he is to be for ever ; it is what God 
thinks of him, and what God will do with him in 
eternity. This is the great question ; this is the 
grand concern ; and so the renewed soul feels it to 
be, at least in his more serious and collected mo- 
ments. 

Although outward reformation does not of itself con- 
stitute regeneration, yet such reformation is a 
uniform effect of it, and therefore essentially 



FRUITS AND EVIDENCES OF REGENERATION. 107 

necessary to complete the proof that the change has 

taken place. 

" Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." 
Religion is a divine life, a vital principle in the 
soul, of heavenly origin ; and, therefore, it must 
have external manifestations, an outgrowth of holy 
activities. The seed being planted, the fruit will 
surely and speedily appear. What saith the Scrip- 
ture ? " Whosoever is born of God doth not com- 
mit sin ; for his seed remaineth in him ; and he 
cannot sin, because he is born of God," 1 John iii. 
9. Paul, in 1 Cor. vi. 11, speaks of Christians, 
though polluted and unholy before, yet in their 
regeneration, as washed and sanctified by the 
Spirit of God. As, from the vital energy in the 
seed, the stem, leaves, buds, blossoms, and ripened 
fruit of the plant are evolved, so, from the living 
principle of grace in the heart, are developed in 
the life all the rich and clustering fruits of the 
Spirit — all those gracious activities which constitute 
holy living. This alteration in the life will be 
marked and conspicuous, when the openly profane 
and irreligious are new-born. But it is not con- 
fined to persons of that description. " A change 
will even take place," says Dr. Dick, "in the most 
moral unconverted man, as soon as he is born from 
above. There are, perhaps, no gross sins, from 
which he needs to be purified ; but he will become 
more spiritual in his conversation, more attentive to 



108 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

religious and relative duties, less eager in pursuit 
of the world, more scrupulous in the selection of 
his company, and more cautious in avoiding the 
occasions of sin and appearances of evil. The eye 
of an attentive and practised spectator will perceive, 
notwithstanding his former fair show, that even he 
is become a new man. * * * * The praise of man 
is no longer the motive which stimulates his activ- 
ity ; another, of a purer and more exalted kind, has 
assumed its place — a desire for the approbation of 
his Maker. A reference to God in all his thoughts 
and actions, a regard to his authority, a love com- 
pounded of esteem, gratitude, and desire of his 
favour and presence, are the principles by which he 
is governed. There is an elevation of sentiment 
and affection above the standard of nature, however 
carefully improved. He is still in the world, but 
he is no longer of it ; and, although he attends to 
its affairs, and feels joy and sorrow from its changes, 
he gives the decided and habitual preference to 
nobler objects; and, like the ancient sojourners in 
Canaan, whose faith we are exhorted to follow, he 
declares plainly that he is seeking a better country, 
even an heavenly." 



CONCLUSION. 109 



CHAPTER VIII. 

CONCLUSION. 

I have endeavoured, in the preceding pages, to set 
forth the Scriptural doctrine of the new birth, — 
the nature, instantaneousness, necessity, author, in- 
strument, and fruits of regeneration, as these things 
are taught in the word of God. 

Regeneration, — it has been seen in this exhibition 
of it, — is a great and glorious change, in which the 
soul is convinced of sin, the understanding enlight- 
ened in the knowledge of God, the will renewed, 
the affections regulated, the body sanctified, and all 
the powers of the man directed to new and nobler 
objects. This wonderful change is instantaneously 
wrought, there being no delay in the transition from 
death to life, no intermediate state between the state 
of nature and the state of grace, between condem- 
nation in sin and justification in the righteousness 
of Christ, between a righteous exposure to hell and 
a gracious title to heaven. The necessity for this 
change arises from the fact that all men are spirit- 
ually dead, and without tastes, or aptitudes, or even 
10 



110 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

powers, for spiritual employments and pleasures ; 
and is impressively set forth and taught in Holy 
Scripture. God the Holy Ghost is the sole author 
of this change, which he effects by the direct exertion 
of his almighty power ; using, however, to this end, 
the truth revealed in the Bible, as the external 
means. Of all which the resulting consequence 
and the indubitable evidence is a complete revolu- 
tion in the spiritual tastes and emotions, and a rad- 
ical, pervading, and permanent reformation of the 
life ; and this, however amiable the temper, how- 
ever moral the deportment, however upright and 
useful, in a merely worldly point of view, the life 
may have previously been. 

Are we asked as to the essence of this new life, 
and the manner of its infusion into the soul ? We 
candidly own our inability to explain, or even to 
conceive what it is, or how it is. But we avow 
an equal incompetency to conceive or explain what 
the essence or the origin of that life is, which per- 
vades, moves, and animates this mortal body. We 
know the fact of our natural life, because we see 
and feel its effects in the phenomena of sensation, 
thought, volition, and action. In the same manner, 
and with the same certainty, do we know the fact 
of our new spiritual life. We reason, judge, desire, 
hope, believe, repent, and act, as we never did be- 
fore. Our thoughts are new ; our aims are new ; 
our motives are new ; our emotions are new ; our 
life is new. In these actings of the new, spiritual, 



CONCLUSION. Ill 

and divine life, we have abundant evidence of its 
existence. 

The Bible speaks of spiritual life just as it speaks 
of natural life, treating the one as a reality equally 
with the other. A beautiful incident is related by Dr. 
Brownlee, in his " Christian Youth's Book," show- 
ing how vigorous the former sometimes is amid the 
decay and wreck of the latter, even when reason, 
judgment, and memory have deserted the throne. 
An aged servant of God had sunk to an extreme 
mental imbecility. The scenes of his youth, which 
are ever the last to let go their hold upon the mem- 
ory, had faded from his mind. Friends, children, 
even the dear partner of his life had, all alike, be- 
come strangers to him. Of his wife he declared, 
that he did not remember to have seen her. A 
friend, standing by the bedside of the dying saint, 
said to him, " Do you know who the Lord Jesua 
Christ is ?" Instantly his mind rallied, and he re- 
plied, " yes, I know the Lord Jesus Christ ; he 
has been my very dear Saviour these fifty years." 
Well does the learned and pious doctor, in comment- 
ing on this incident, observe, that " spiritual life is 
a positive reality in the very essence of the soul, 
as much as any other inseparable or known quality 
or attribute of it." 

The sum is : there are two states, and every 
child of Adam is in the one or the other of them. 
These are the carnal and the spiritual ; the state of 
nature and the state of grace. These two states 



112 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

are directly contrary to each other. They can no 
more coalesce than Christ and Belial. There is no 
one point, where they meet and harmonize. It is 
true that they are both predicable of human beings ; 
but there the analogy stops. The one is a state of 
darkness ; the other, of light. The one is a state 
of enmity to God; the other, of love to him. The 
one is a state of death; the other, of life. When 
we are in one of these states, our chief end is to 
serve ourselves ; when in the other, to glorify God. 
In one of them, the soul rests in the creature as its 
chief good ; in the other, it rests in God as its por- 
tion and its happiness. When in the one state, a 
man's ways "take hold on death;" when in the 
other, " his path is like the shining light, which 
shineth more and more unto the perfect day." 

Reader, in which of these states are you — the 
regenerate or the unregenerate ? In one or the 
other you must be, for there is not a third. How 
important to bring the matter to a trial ! What 
madness to live in an uncertainty on such a ques- 
tion ! If regenerate, what a comfort to know it ! 
If unregenerate, there is no time for delay in seek- 
ing converting grace. Repent or perish, is the di- 
vine sentence. The new birth or perdition is the 
alternative. Morality will not save you. Outward 
reformation will not save you. Baptism, church 
membership, external ordinances will not save you. 
It is of no avail to cry, " The temple of the Lord, 
the temple of the Lord are we." This was the 



CONCLUSION. 113 

claim, this the boast, this the reliance of the Phar- 
isees of old, against whom the heaviest woes of dam- 
nation were denounced by the lips of the gentle, 
the loving, the gracious Saviour. If you are not 
the subjects of renewing grace, you are yet in your 
sins, and, dying in that condition, you must "go 
away into everlasting punishment. " 

How stands the case, then, with you, reader? 
Are you conscious of a spiritual renovation ? Have 
the illuminations of the Spirit pervaded your un- 
derstanding, his divine energy subdued your will, 
his gentle breathings softened your heart ? Do you 
feel the actings of the new life within you ? Is that 
life quickened by the Spirit into active obedience 
and holy delight in God ? Are you sensible of a 
new interest and pleasure in duty ? Do you find 
your proper element in the service of God ? Is 
Christ formed within you ? Are his mind, his heart, 
and his life reproduced in yours ? Does he live and 
w T alk in you ? Have you crucified the flesh, with 
its affections and lusts ? Does your heart, pierced 
with a sense of sin, like the rock smitten by the 
rod of God, send forth the waters of penitential 
grief ? Is grace a living fountain within you of 
holy desires, holy aspirations, holy resolves, holy 
aims, and holy actions ? Has a purer and nobler 
motive than human applause and worldly riches, 
even a desire of the divine approbation and the 
heavenly inheritance, taken possession of your 
soul ? Are love to the Divine Being and regard 
10 * 



114 A TREATISE ON REGENERATION. 

to the Divine authority the spring and the rule of 
your conduct ? Though in the world, are you no 
longer of the world ? Though mingling in its af- 
fairs and sensitive to its vicissitudes, do you, like 
patriarchs and prophets, declare plainly that you 
are seeking a heavenly country ? If so, happy are 
you ! Seek a complete consecration, an entire 
sanctification. Aim at an abundant entrance and 
a lustrous crown. 

But if otherwise, if still unregenerate, suffer the 
word of solemn warning and affectionate entreaty. 
Your state is bad, but it is not hopeless. Christ is 
able, Christ is willing, to save to the uttermost. 
There is no guilt too great for him to cancel ; no 
stain of sin too deep for him to wash out; no 
chain of Satan too strong for him to break asun- 
der. Fly to his cross for refuge ; seek from him 
the new heart. Infinite obligations press you to 
this ; infinite compassion weeps over your insensi- 
bility ; infinite mercy stoops to redeem you ; infi- 
nite love wooes your return. Let fall at length the 
weapons of your rebellion. All that is great, all 
that is good, all that is pure, all that is lovely, im- 
plore you to seek the regenerating and saving grace 
of God in Christ. 

Unconverted reader, receive the parting word 
which I address to you in all tenderness and fidelity, 
and may God, by his Spirit, impress it with saving 
power on your heart. It is this : Take with you 
to your home, to your business, to your closet, to 



CONCLUSION. 115 

your most secret thoughts and self-communings, the 
words of our Saviour to Nicodemus, so solemn in 
their import, so startling by their energy, so tre- 
mendous and far-reaching in the destiny to which 
they point, — "Except a man be born again, 

HE CANNOT SEE THE KINGDOM OF GOD 1" 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



(The figures refer to the pages.) 

Activity and Passivity. — In what sense both may be 
predicated of the soul in regeneration, 76 — Many apparently 
contradictory passages reconciled by this view, 77. 

Affections. — Changed as to their direction and objects in 
regeneration, 28. 

Author of Kegeneration. — God the Holy Spirit, 58. 
Citation from Shorter Catechism to this effect, 58 — This doc- 
trine indicated by the names given to the Spirit, 58 — The 
Scriptures abundantly attest it, 59 — Need of almighty Power 
in the work of regeneration proved from the nature of the 
change, 60 — Prom the change being called a creation, 61 — 
From the thing to be changed, 63 — From the difficulty of 
the work, 64 — From the varying success of the gospel, 66 — 
From the explicit declarations of the Bible, 69 — God claims 
regeneration as his work, 70 — The great Teacher's testimony, 
72 — Paul's testimony, 72 — Jeremiah's testimony, 73 — Eze- 
kiel's testimony, 73 — Effect of the Spirit's work, 74 — He ope- 
rates, not upon a mere lump of clay, but upon a rational 
and moral being, 74 — Mode of the Spirit's work, a mystery, 
78 — A reality, 79 — Endlessly varied, 80. 

Baptism. — Erroneously identified with regeneration, 9. 

Body, The. — Sanctified in regeneration, 30 — This point 
much insisted on by the sacred writers, 31. 

Cicero. — His use of the term regeneration, 8. 

Conversion. — "Wherein it differs from regeneration, 78. 

Conviction of Sin.— An essential prerequisite to regener- 
ation, 11 — Wrought by the Holy Spirit, 11 — Instrument of 
the divine law, 11 — Not uniform in all, 12 — Not to be viewed 
as a warrant for, or a condition of welcome in, coming to 

(117) 



118 ALPHABETICAL INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 

Christ, 13 — This the error of the Remonstrants of Holland, 14 
— Nevertheless it is in its own nature essential, since none ever 
come to Christ without feeling their need of him, 14. 

Errors. — Touching the nature of regeneration, 9. 

Freedom. — Nature of the will's, 22. 

Evidences of Regeneration. — See Fruits of Regenera- 
tion. 

Fruits or Regeneration. — New apprehensions of God, 
98 — New views of Christ, 99 — A new relish of ordinances, 100 
— New views of sin, 100 — New thoughts and exercises in 
respect to holiness, 101 — New views of truth, 101 — New judg- 
ments concerning self, 102 — New feelings toward Christians, 
103 — New emotions toward sinners, 103 — A new estimate of 
of the world, 104 — A new estimate of time, 104 — New judg- 
ments of eternity, 105 — A new life, 106. 

Gospel, The. — Its office in regeneration, 86. 

Holy Spirit. — See Author of Regeneration. 

Illumination, Spiritual. — An element in regeneration, 
15 — The first effect of renewing grace, 15 — Why necessary, 
15 — Office of the Spirit to impart light, 16 — Nature and scope 
of spiritual illumination, 18 — Does not reveal new truth, 20. 

Instantaneousness of Regeneration — Regeneration, 
of necessity, instantaneous, 33 — Proved by instances from 
Scripture, 34 — From its being termed a calling, 36 — From its 
being compared to a creation and a resurrection, 37 — From a 
classification of men common in the Bible, 38. 

Instrument of Regeneration. — This is the word of 
God, 83 — The doctrine abundantly taught in the Bible, 
83— The Saviour's testimony, 83— Paul's, 84— Peter's, 85— 
James's, 85 — David's, 86 — This doctrine confirmed by the his- 
tory of God's grace, 87 — Divine word comprised in two de- 
partments, the law and the gospel, 88 — The office of each, 88 
— The word not the efficient cause of regeneration, 89. 

Israelites. — Their use of the word regeneration, 8. 

Josephus. — His use of the term regeneration, 8. 

Law, the Divine. — Its office in regeneration, 11, 88. 

Life, Spiritual. — Its essence inexplicable, 110 — Its re- 
ality undoubted, 111. 

Morality. — Not regeneration, 9. 

Necessity of Regeneration. — This necessity extends 
to all men, 46 — Proved from the condition of human nature, 
48— From the fact that heaven itself would afibrd no enjoy- 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 119 

inont without it, 51 — From the holiness of God, 51 — From 
the mission and work of Christ, 52 — From many plain Scrip- 
tare testimonies, 53 — The Bible insists upon this necessity, 56 
— A strange doctrine to worldlings and philosophers, 56. 

New Birth. — See Kegeneration. 

Orthodoxy. — Erroneously regarded as regeneration, 9. 

Passivity and Actiyity. — See Activity and Passivity. 

Profession, Visible. — Not regeneration, 9. 

Reformation. — Wrongly identified with regeneration, 9. 

Regeneration. — Definition of, 7 — Names given to it in. 
the Bible, 7 — Primary meaning of, 8 — Errors concerning, 9 
— Scriptural idea of, 10 — Implies conviction of sin, 11 — Spi- 
ritual illumination, 15 — Renewal of the will, 22 — Renovation 
of the heart, 28 — Sanctification of the body, 30 — Is instanta- 
neous, 33 — Time of, not necessary to be known, 39 — Indispen- 
sable necessity of, 46 — Author of, 58 — Distinguished from con- 
version, 78 — Instrument of, 83 — Means of, 91 — Fruits and 
evidences of, 97 — Recapitulation of doctrine concerning, 109. 

Roman Law. — Denominates the manumission of a slave 
regeneration, 8. 

Soul, The Human. — In what sense passive, and in what 
active, in regeneration, 76. 

Unconverted Men. — Bound to use the means of regenera- 
tion, 93 — Means useful, 93 — Fatal to trust in means, 94 — The 
reader warned against this danger, and exhorted to fly to 
Christ, 95. 

Will, the Human. — Renewal of, in regeneration, 22 — 
Nature and extent of its freedom, 23 — Explanations concern- 
ing, 24 — Renovation of the will indispensable, 25 — Accompa- 
nies spiritual illumination, 25 — No violence done to the will 
in regeneration, 26 — The will ever free, 27 — Consciousness 
proves this, 27 — Manner of the Spirit's work in renewing the 
will a deep mystery, 28. 

Word of God. — See Instrument of Regeneration. 



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